(SAN FRANCISCO)- Conservation groups can't convince the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an injunction against upcoming wolf hunts in the Northern Rockies, with the panel rejecting arguments the rule allowing hunts is unconstitutional.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups had argued a Congressional rider which removed the wolves from the Endangered Special List violated the Separation of Powers Doctrine because it barred the courts from overturning the change.
But Thursday the appeals court refused to enjoin the hunts while it hears the official appeal of the case from the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy here in Missoula.
Molloy ruled last month the Congressional attachment to an appropriations bill in April may be unconstitutional, but case law kept him from accepting the conservationists' position.
That means the hunts can begin as scheduled, next week in Idaho and the following week in Montana. Both states plan the hunts to control the growing populations of wolves.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies is worried "hundreds of wolves" will be killed.
"We are discouraged we did win a stay of execution for wolves, but we are cautiously optimistic that we will win our lawsuit to protect wolves from future persecution," said John Horning, Executive Director for WildEarth Guardians.
"We lost the injunction, we have not lost the case," said Mike Garrity, Executive Director for Alliance for the Wild Rockies. "We will continue to fight to protect the wolves and enforce the Separation of Powers Doctrine in the U.S. Constitution."
The Congressional action came after Judge Molloy ruled last August that wolves in the two states couldn't be treated as a separate species and taken off the Endangered Species List.
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