Attorney General James Sues to Defend Protections for Endangered Species

September 9, 2026

NEW YORK - New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of 20 other attorneys general today are filing two lawsuits challenging new Trump administration rules that dramatically weaken the federal protections that have helped save America's most imperiled wildlife from extinction. With these changes, the administration is greenlighting the destruction of endangered species' habitats, leaving newly threatened species without federal protection, and giving commercial developers and fossil fuel companies a pathway to access endangered animals' habitats. New York is home to dozens of endangered and threatened species that depend on these protections, including four species of sea turtles and six species of whales. Attorney General James and the coalition are asking the court to strike down the rules and restore the safeguards that have protected threatened and endangered species for decades.

"America's endangered species have survived because generations of Americans chose to protect them and the habitats they depend on," said Attorney General James. "Now, the Trump administration is tearing down those protections and pushing countless endangered species closer to extinction. We owe future generations a world where bald eagles soar, sea turtles swim, and all wildlife thrives. If this administration is willing to turn its back on that responsibility, state attorneys general will fight in court to uphold it."

Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act in 1973 with near-unanimous bipartisan support, directing the federal government to "halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost." The law, championed by President Richard Nixon, was designed to protect the ecosystems that endangered and threatened species depend on and bring species to the point where federal protections are no longer necessary. The law has produced extraordinary results, with 99 percent of species protected by the Endangered Species Act avoiding extinction, and numerous species once on the brink of extinction dramatically increasing their populations. The bald eagle, the nation's symbol, is among the species that have been brought back from the edge of extinction, in large part because of New York's reintroduction program, which hand-reared young eagles before releasing them into the wild.

This year, the Trump administration made an unprecedented move to dismantle these protections, eliminating the definition of "harm" that for decades made it illegal to damage or destroy a species' habitat. The new rule declares that harming a protected area is only illegal if it is a direct, intentional act against an individual animal, leaving habitat destruction completely unregulated even when it kills or injures a species. In one of their lawsuits, Attorney General James and the coalition challenge this rule and emphasize the magnitude of the potential consequences, arguing habitat loss is one of the greatest threats facing endangered species. The coalition calls the rule "a reversal of staggering proportions" that directly conflicts with the Endangered Species Act and explicit Supreme Court precedent on the legal definition of "harm."

The attorneys general's second lawsuit challenges two additional rules that weaken protections for threatened species and their critical habitats. One rule eliminates a basic safety net that for decades has automatically protected newly threatened species from being killed, harmed, or harassed. Under the administration's reversal, a species added to the threatened list will no longer receive federal protection unless the government writes a new, species-specific rule. As a result, animals like the Monarch butterfly, which is currently under consideration for addition to the threatened list, could be left unprotected even after receiving the official federal designation.

The third challenged rule hands developers and the fossil fuel industry the power to block endangered species protections. Historically, scientists and experts have determined which areas qualify as "critical habitats" - land or water that a protected species needs to survive. Now, however, if a company claims that protecting an area will be bad for business, the federal government must consider excluding it. If the business benefits outweigh the risks to the endangered animal, regulators must approve the exclusion, unless doing so would directly cause extinction of the entire species. In essence, this grants commercial developers, fossil fuel companies, and other corporate entities a veto over new conservation areas and opens endangered species' homes to logging, mining, and drilling.

Attorney General James and the coalition argue these three rules will put vulnerable species at risk at the precise moment when federal protection is most needed. Habitats could be destroyed outright without legal consequence, and newly designated species could go years without protection as their populations dwindle. Land that scientists say is essential to a species' survival could be opened for development. In New York, that could mean fewer safeguards for the sea turtles that feed off the coast of Long Island, the piping plovers nesting in the state's coastal refuges, and the sturgeon whose populations have only recently started to recover. Even where New York has established state protections for endangered species, animals are not constricted by state lines and thus remain vulnerable to the harm of federal deregulation.

In their lawsuits, the attorneys general emphasize that rolling back these protections risks reversing decades of progress. They argue that all three rules violate the Endangered Species Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, and are asking the court to vacate the rules and reinstate critical protections for our nation's wildlife.

Joining Attorney General James in filing one or both of these lawsuits are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.