Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) makes it unlawful to "take" a protected species, and defines "take" to include "harm." The Secretary of the Interior (defendant) issued a regulation defining "harm" to include significant habitat modification that actually kills or injures wildlife. Sweet Home Chapter, representing loggers and landowners (plaintiffs), sued, arguing the regulation improperly extended "harm" to indirect habitat damage and had cost them logging opportunities near habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and threatened northern spotted owl. The district court upheld the regulation, but the court of appeals reversed, reasoning that surrounding statutory words limited "harm" to direct force against an animal. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.