Challenge to Endangered Species Act Fails

After considering the case for three weeks, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal involving the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly and a broad challenge to the Endangered Species Act.

The court’s action leaves intact the federal power to regulate the environment for threatened animals and insects, even those that live entirely in a small area of one state.

Developers and property rights activists who have chafed at the federal regulations had seized on the case of the rare fly, which lives in sand dunes in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

San Bernardino County officials complained when they were forced to slightly relocate a planned $487-million hospital because it sat on sand used by the flies.

Their lawyers not only challenged this regulation as excessive but questioned whether Congress had the constitutional power to impose environmental regulations over a purely local species.

The Supreme Court has been receptive to challenges that limit federal power and the justices apparently gave the appeal a close reading over several weeks.

But in the end, they denied the appeal without comment Monday.

Property rights activists said they will keep raising the issue in the lower courts, hoping to force an eventual high court ruling.