Conservation groups and eight states sued the Heel in Office to stop his dismantling of another keystone environmental protection law, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In 2018 the plaintiffs sued to overturn the Department of Interior's cockeyed interpretation of the Act, which said that migratory birds were protected only from intentional, deliberate lethal acts. Today a federal judge ruled that an unscientific interpretation in a department legal opinion violates the plain meaning of the treaty. If the regime's rule had been in place in 2010, there would have been no recovery for the millions of coastal birds killed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Judge Valerie Caproni noted, “It is not only a sin to kill a mockingbird, it is also a crime. That has been the letter of the law for the past century."
Although the ruling is a victory for migratory birds and their habitat, Congress must act to pass a permanent legislative fix, so the regime's attempts to turn their twisted legal opinion into permanent administrative rule is halted. The Act is not an unduly burdensome law, but a common sense measure to protect migrating birds from man-made hazards, like covering waste pits that tired birds mistake for ponds where they can rest on their journeys. Audubon Society says that
up to one million birds are killed each year in oil waste pits.
