One of the Endangered Species Act’s most fundamental protections for imperiled species is prohibiting unauthorized “take,” a term Congress defined broadly to include killing, harassing, wounding, harming, and more. But in July of this year, the Trump administration eliminated the longstanding regulatory definitions of “harm,” removing the take prohibition for wildlife killed or injured by significant habitat destruction. Exactly two months later, the administration doubled down. In identical memos dated September 14, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries declared that take applies only to affirmative acts intentionally directed at particular animals. This radical reinterpretation substantially narrows what it means to take protected species, and therefore drastically limits how the ESA can protect them.

The funniest part to me about law is that people who study it tend to genuinely believe it exists as something that the rich cannot turn off on a whim.