⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Ninth Circuit hears the fight over removing federal Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves across much of the lower forty-eight states. After killings and development drove wolves from much of their range, protected populations recovered around the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains. In 2020, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that wolves had recovered enough to remove the remaining federal listings, returning management to states and tribes. The Northern Rocky Mountain wolves had already been delisted separately; Mexican wolves have a separate listing. Conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, sued, saying that healthy core populations did not justify leaving smaller, recovering populations unprotected. In February 2022, the district court set the rule aside, restoring the previous protections. It found deficiencies in assessing wolves outside the core populations, defining a significant portion of their range, and explaining protections on federal land. But it upheld the agency's assessment of state management plans. The federal government and intervening farm and hunting organizations now seek reversal; the conservation groups will defend the judgment. Federal counsel will contend that the court substituted its own scientific judgment and wrongly required recovery throughout the wolves' historical range. Conservation counsel will contend that the agency failed to justify dismissing the risks to populations outside the strongest core areas. The lawyers will also discuss distinct population segments, or D P S. This allows a discrete, biologically significant population of a vertebrate species to be assessed for protection separately from the whole species. The dispute includes whether the existing wolf listings fit that category, and whether that question alone can justify removing protection. The court reviews whether the agency followed the law and adequately explained its decision, not simply which scientists the judges prefer.

Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (No. 22-15529) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, argued October 13, 2026.