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Washington, DC, June 8, 2021 (Global News Agency)-According to the proposed rules of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), any activity that causes the accidental death of migratory birds will be considered a crime. FWS Regulations for the management of migratory birds Abolish the Trump administration Final rule As Congress did, it correctly defined the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) to exclude criminal liability for the accidental death of migratory birds.The New Civil Liberties Union is a non-partisan, non-profit civil rights organization that submitted Annotation Against the proposed rule, this greatly expands the interpretation of the MBTA, thereby granting the Department of Justice the discretion to prosecute all acts that only have the effect of killing migratory birds. According to the new position of the FWS, any activity that inadvertently causes the death of migratory birds-such as hitting a bird while driving or hitting a bird with a windmill blade-is a crime. Individuals must rely on the grace of the federal government to avoid prosecution.
The MBTA was first adopted in 1918 to ensure the sustainability of migratory bird populations. It protects more than 1,000 species of birds in the United States. MBTA focuses on actions that kill or directly harm protected migratory birds. The regulation declares that the 22 specifically listed activities related to migratory birds are completely illegal. The words in the listed activities have a common theme: activities that deliberately target migratory birds are prohibited. The MBTA’s list of prohibited activities does not include the term “accidental take away”.
Since 1973 (coincidentally, the year the Endangered Species Act was enacted), the FWS has been trying to expand its jurisdiction, sometimes targeting those who did not take action to harm migratory birds but whose actions indirectly caused harm to migratory birds MBTA. For decades, the MBTA’s scope of responsibility has been a controversial issue, dividing the courts and the Ministry of the Interior into separate administrative departments. NCLA believes that FWS has no right to issue regulations related to “incidental events” and disagrees with FWS’s view that MBTA can be interpreted as prohibiting actions that are not directed at birds, which can cause incidental and indirect harm to birds.
The FWS should avoid repealing the final rule and should continue its current practice of not prosecuting contingency. The meaning of MBTA should be finally determined by the court through adversarial procedures-if necessary, by the Supreme Court. The meaning of the decree should not depend on who occupied the White House or the Department of the Interior.
NCLA issued the following statement:
“A major source of continued confusion about the meaning of MBTA is Chevron According to this principle, courts usually follow the interpretation of federal regulations by federal agencies.It’s time for the court to abandon the constitutional issue Chevron Doctrines and explain the MBTA based on the simple meaning of its text. “
— Rich Samp, NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can request Congress to amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act at any time to allow the Department of Justice to prosecute so-called accidental bird capture. Instead, it attempts to shorten the ordinary legislative process. This unconstitutional shortcut was the first in the Nixon era. The fact of trying cannot be an excuse for violating the Constitution. The FWS should leave the job of defining new crimes to Congress, because Congress should have power.
— Sheng Li, Litigation Counsel, NCLA
For more information on this issue, please visit Here.
About NCLA
NCLA It is a non-partisan, non-profit civil rights organization founded by a well-known legal scholar Philip Burger Protect constitutional freedom from infringement by the administrative state. NCLA’s public interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy efforts to tame the illegal powers of state and federal agencies and promote new civil liberties movements will help restore the basic rights of Americans.
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Judy Pino New Civil Liberties Alliance 202-869-5218 judy.pino@ncla.legal
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