“Our analysis starts with the phrase ‘critical habitat.’ According to the ordinary understanding of how adjectives work, ‘critical habitat’ must also be ‘habitat.’
Adjectives modify nouns—they pick out a subset of a category that possesses a certain quality. It follows that ‘critical habitat’ is the subset of ‘habitat’ that is ‘critical’ to the conservation of an endangered species.” —Chief Justice Roberts for unanimous #SCOTUS today.
This is an enormous win for landowners and more will follow as common sense marches off to strike down decades of abuse of the Endangered Species Act. supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf…
