Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter, Communities for Great Ore.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or Act), 87 Stat. 884,16 U. S. C. § 1631 (1988 ed. and'Supp. V), contains a variety of protections designed to save from extinction species that the Secretary of the Interior designates as endangered or threatened. Section 9 of the Act makes it unlawful for any person to “take” any endangered or threatened species. The Secretary has promulgated a regulation that defines the statute’s prohibition on takings to include “significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife.” This case presents the question whether the…