Ninth Circuit Reins in Bad Rulemaking for Wild Horses

In Friends of Animals v. Haaland, the Ninth Circuit removed a barrier to petitioning a species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), creating new hope for grazing policy reform. The decision showed just how powerful delegation can be when the rule promulgated is not “arbitrary and capricious.” In summary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), should use their power of delegation to push
the needle towards more ecologically-sound policies, and capitalize on the Ninth Circuit’s expansion of the ESA to designate more critical habitat for deserving threatened and endangered species, indirectly displacing wild horses and cattle from public lands.