Legislative Background on Endangered Species
Recent Action by the Trump Administration and Congress
The Endangered Species Act (ESA), which Congress passed with near uninamous support and President Nixon signed in 1973, was one of a number of major new environmental laws passed in the 1970s. It was designed to protect species that were on the brink of extinction “as a consequence of economic growth and development untampered by adequate concern and conservation.” In a major 1978 decision, Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, the U.S. Supreme Court found that Congress’s plain intent in enacting the ESA was “to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost.” The Court sided with plaintiffs…
