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Attorney, professor debate protection of smelt fish

Posted by: Maven on June 18, 2010 at 8:51 am

From the Capital Press:

“The Pacific Legal Foundation hopes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will declare federal protections for California’s Delta smelt unconstitutional.

Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff, in a June 14 debate in Sacramento staged by the conservative Federalist Society, laid out his case, to be argued before the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later this year.

The fish exists only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and has no commercial value, Schiff said. Therefore the feds cannot regulate it under the Constitution’s interstate-commerce provisions, which have formed the basis of the ESA’s constitutionality. … “

Continue reading from the Capital Press by clicking here.

Here’s how the Pacific Legal Foundation covered it:

“Federal Endangered Species Act regulations to help the Delta smelt have led to dramatic and economically crippling cuts in water pumping to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

Are those regulations unconstitutional?

That was the topic of a debate this week between PLF attorney Damien M. Schiff and Richard Frank, an environmental law specialist at UC Berkeley School of Law.

The function was held at the California Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Sacramento, and sponsored by the Sacramento chapter of the Federalist Society.

PLF’s lawsuit argues that federal regulations for the Delta smelt exceed federal authority to regulate “interstate commerce,” because the smelt exists in only one state—California—and is not bought or sold in commerce. … “

Watch video of the debate by clicking here.

June 18, 2010 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Wildlife & Endangered Species

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