Attorney General Ellison challenges Trump Administration’s rollbacks of Endangered Species Act regulations

New rules put species and their habitats at risk

September 9, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Attorney General Ellison today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing two lawsuits to protect endangered and threatened species, one against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and another against FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, “the Services”). The suits challenge new rules that gut essential protections for wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and threaten the survival of imperiled species. The rules make it easier for private companies or individuals to modify or degrade the habitats of listed threatened and endangered species and leave threatened species without core protections.  

“The Trump administration’s efforts to roll back important protections for endangered species are as unlawful as they are alarming,” said Attorney General Ellison. "These changes, which include redefining the word ‘harm’ to make it easier to degrade the natural habitats of endangered species, are morally wrong and clearly go against what Congress intended when it passed the Endangered Species Act. Today, I’m taking Trump and his regime to court to stop them from enacting rules that illegally harm species which are already endangered or threatened.”

The coalition’s first lawsuit challenges the Services’ rescission of the longstanding regulatory definition of “harm.” Previously, the rule defined harm to include “significant habitat modification or degradation” that could kill or injure wildlife by damaging species’ natural habitats and behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering. Altering this definition reduces protections for habitats and makes it easier for them to be damaged or destroyed, even when that destruction ultimately threatens the survival of protected species.  

The second lawsuit challenges two rule changes by FWS that reduce protections for threatened species and create a new process for designating areas as “critical habitat.”  The first rule rescinds FWS’s regulations that automatically protect all newly listed threatened species. The second rule establishes a new process for designating areas as “critical habitat,” that will leave areas essential to species’ conservation without the protections that Congress intended. Together, these changes put threatened and endangered species and their habitats at risk and undermine the comprehensive protections Congress mandated under the ESA. 

Research shows habitat loss is the primary cause of species decline. In both lawsuits, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue the Services’ rationale for gutting habitat protections is contrary to the intent of the ESA, which Congress enacted to protect endangered and threatened wildlife and the ecosystems they depend on for survival. In the second lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that FWS’s rescission of automatic protections for newly listed threatened species is contrary to the ESA’s conservation purpose because it leaves threatened species without protection necessary for their survival and substantially increases the risk that they will become endangered. The coalition argues these rules are also contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing today’s lawsuits, which were co-led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, Maryland, and Washington, are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.