Safari Club International Steps Up to Defend Constitutionality of Three Antelope Law

Posted by firstforwildlife on April 11, 2014 · 2 Comments 

Safari Club International has been granted intervenor status in federal district court to defend Section 127 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014.  The new provision, signed into law on January 18, 2014, exempts the taking of members of U.S. herds of the scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle and addax from most permit requirements associated with their endangered species status.  Section 127 directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to reissue a 2005 rule that excuses private ranchers from obtaining permits to cull and to sell culling opportunities for members of their three antelope herds.  Even before the FWS reissued the 2005 rule, Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Section 127.  Their lawsuit claims that, by passing the legislation, Congress illegally interfered with the authority of the judiciary which constitutes a violation of the constitutional separation of powers doctrine.   This is not the first time that SCI has joined litigation to defend the constitutionality of federal legislation.  When Congress passed a law in 2011 directing the FWS to delist the wolves of Montana and Idaho, SCI intervened in litigation to help defend the constitutionality of that law.  We hope to have the same success with Section 127 as we did defending the wolf delisting statute.

Filed under Developing, hunting bans · Tagged with endangered Species act, Friends of Animals lawsuits, FWS antelope hunting ban, FWS ruling, T, The Three Amigos