Opinion ID: 183646
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mead Requirements

Text: Under Chevron, ambiguities in statutes within an agency's jurisdiction to administer are delegations of authority to the agency to fill the statutory gap in reasonable fashion. Brand X, 545 U.S. at 980, 125 S.Ct. 2688. Chevron deference, however, applies only when it appears that Congress delegated authority to the agency generally to make rules carrying the force of law, and that the agency interpretation claiming deference was promulgated in the exercise of that authority. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. at 226-27, 121 S.Ct. 2164. Here, the FWS is the agency responsible for the protection and recovery of endangered plant species. 50 C.F.R. § 402.01(b). The FWS, therefore, has the authority to interpret the ESA in rules carrying the force of law. See, e.g., Sweet Home, 515 U.S. at 691 n. 2, 115 S.Ct. 2407. The Supreme Court has explained that [t]he latitude the ESA gives the Secretary [of the Interior] in enforcing the statute, together with the degree of regulatory expertise necessary to its enforcement, establishes that we owe some degree of deference to the Secretary's [and by extension the FWS's] reasonable interpretation. See id. at 703, 115 S.Ct. 2407; see also 16 U.S.C. § 1540(f). Moreover, just as the Corps' expertise gives it the authority to make certain determinations about the extent of its jurisdiction under the CWA, the FWS's expertise on endangered species provides it with an adequate basis to determine whether, under the ESA, certain privately-owned lands might also be considered areas under Federal jurisdiction. Cf. Rapanos, 547 U.S. at 766, 126 S.Ct. 2208 (noting that the Court permitted the Corps to find that it had jurisdiction under the CWA to regulate some privately-owned land on the basis of their ecological judgment about the relationship between waters and their adjacent wetlands) (quoting Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U.S. at 134, 106 S.Ct. 455); Sweet Home, 515 U.S. at 698, 115 S.Ct. 2407 (concluding that the broad purpose of the ESA supports the Secretary's decision to extend protection against activities that cause the precise harms Congress enacted the statute to avoid). Therefore, the first requirement under Mead for granting Chevron deference is met. The United States asks us to defer to several purportedly relevant statements found in three rules that add plants to the endangered species list. [11] We have previously determined that such rulings were promulgated by the FWS in the exercise of its delegated authority. See Trout Unlimited v. Lohn, 559 F.3d 946, 954 (9th Cir.2009). Thus the second requirement under Mead for granting Chevron deference, that the agency interpretation claiming deference was promulgated in the exercise of that authority, is also met. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. at 227, 121 S.Ct. 2164. Therefore, we proceed to the second step of Chevron.