https://www.law360.com/article...rophy-import-permits

I do not have access to law360, if someone can let us know what happened in court on Monday, thanks.

Feds say elephant hunters can't rush trophy imports.

From the first line.

It says government departments can bloody well sleep on the job!

Lovely!

(February 25, 2020, 4:24 PM EST) -- The U.S. Department of the Interior has told a D.C. federal court that the agency doesn't have to rush its processing of African elephant hunters' requests to bring back their trophies, downplaying the hunters' alleged emotional anguish over the delays.

The federal government asked the court on Monday to deny a preliminary injunction bid by the Dallas Safari Club, the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and others to force the DOI to make decisions on more than 200 elephant trophy import applications within 90 days.

Hunters might pay tens of thousands of dollars to go to Africa and hunt elephants, but that doesn't mean they are irreparably harmed if they have to wait to find out whether they can bring home a trophy, the government said.

"Unhappiness at being temporarily denied enjoyment of a material good is not the sort of extreme emotional distress that could justify a preliminary injunction," the government said.

In recent years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said it would consider elephant trophy import applications on a case-by-case basis, but it hasn't made any decisions on those requests, according to court records. The inaction follows a D.C. Circuit decision in 2017 that said the Obama administration had bypassed the required rulemaking process when it banned imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies from Zimbabwe.

The Trump administration initially made positive findings about elephant imports. Then President Donald Trump tweeted in 2017, "[p]ut big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts," according to court records. More than 200 applications for elephant trophy imports have now piled up.

The hunters say the government is obligated to act on the permits as soon as possible. The government advises people to apply 90 days before they want the permit to be effective, providing a guideline that should be reliable, according to George L. Lyon Jr. of Bergstrom Attorneys, an attorney for the plaintiffs. He said elephant trophy hunting provides money for conservation efforts and transforms the animals into a valuable commodity that locals will want to keep around because hunters are willing to pay for them.

Then Trump tweeted and permits stopped.

"At no point do [the government] say that they are actually engaged in processing these applications and that they just need more time," Lyon told Law360, adding that the government has instead indicated processing the applications will take a lot of time. "Which to me says, 'we aren't processing them. We aren't processing them because we are scared of a presidential tweet.'"

He said African elephants are a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and the government is harming the species by failing to act on the permit requests that benefit their long-term survival.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said acting on the requests would require a ton of work to determine whether each individual killing "enhanced the survival of the species" as required. And the emotional and monetary injuries the plaintiffs allege don't justify that kind of dramatic action, especially because the government has acted properly, it said.

Plus, the hunters can go to Africa to hunt elephants — that's the jurisdiction of foreign countries. At issue is whether they can bring back trophies. The hunters applied for a permit and knew they could be denied permission to bring trophies home right away. Allegations that storing the trophies costs money don't support a temporary restraining order, either, according to the filing.

"These storage costs are also self-inflicted, since the individuals chose to hunt prior to obtaining an import permit and therefore took the risk that they would have to pay storage fees with no guarantee that they ever will be able to import their trophies," the government said.

Plus, the Fish and Wildlife Service can act on the applications when it wants to.

"The service is free to issue or deny an elephant trophy import permit at any time," the government said.

A representative for the federal government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The plaintiffs are represented by George L. Lyon Jr. of Bergstrom Attorneys.

The federal government is represented by Meredith L. Flax of the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and Seth M. Barsky and Devon Lea Flanagan of the DOJ's Wildlife and Marine Resources Section.

The case is Dallas Safari Club et al. v. David Bernhardt et al., case number 1:19-cv-03696, in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

Thank you sandyhunter, much appreciated.

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Plus, the Fish and Wildlife Service can act on the applications when it wants to.

"The service is free to issue or deny an elephant trophy import permit at any time," the government said.

It seems to be we the government and not "we the people"

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Then Trump tweeted and permits stopped

Didn’t he call it a horror show??

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Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Then Trump tweeted and permits stopped

Didn’t he call it a horror show??

Yes, a wonderfully nuanced understanding of the complex nature of wildlife management, no?

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Originally posted by BaxterB:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Then Trump tweeted and permits stopped

Didn’t he call it a horror show??

Yes, a wonderfully nuanced understanding of the complex nature of wildlife management, no?

Exactly!

He wanted it to stop, so he called it a "horror show".

It worked.

Just as he wanted to avoid the draft by declaring a "bone spur"!