The Role of Litigation in Endangered Species Legislation

The ESA's primary goals are to protect and recover endangered and threatened species and to conserve the ecosystems upon which they depend. Promoting the economic use of endangered and threatened species is not a primary goal of the ESA.

Appeals of agency decisions are not a type of legal action that can be brought under the ESA. Citizen suits, government enforcement actions, and petitions to list or delist a species are all types of legal actions that can be brought under the ESA.

To have standing to bring a citizen suit under the ESA, a person or organization must have suffered an injury in fact. This means that the person or organization must have suffered a concrete and particularized injury that is fairly traceable to the defendant's conduct and is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision in the lawsuit.

Injunctions are the most common type of relief sought in citizen suits under the ESA. Injunctions are court orders that require or prohibit a party from doing something. In ESA citizen suits, injunctions are often sought to prevent the government from taking actions that would harm endangered or threatened species or their habitats.

The courts play a vital role in enforcing the ESA. They interpret the ESA and apply it to specific cases, review agency decisions for compliance with the ESA, and order the government to take or refrain from taking certain actions to protect endangered and threatened species.