The Commerce Clause Meets the Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly

The Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly can only live in particular fine soils - the Delhi Sands that appear in patches over a 40 square mile stretch from Colton to Ontario, California. The fly ended up in court because people wanted to use its habitat for other purposes. The fly earned the status of endangered under the Endangered Species Act on the day before San Bernardino County planned to begin construction of a hospital in the middle of the fly's habitat. The county turned to the Supreme Court's decision in US v. Lopez (1995), the first case since the New Deal to hold that a federal statute exceeded congressional power under the Commerce Clause. San Bernardino attacked the application of the ESA to the protection of the fly against this backdrop. They lost, first in district court and then in a 2-1 decision in the DC Circuit.