Wednesday, the California Supreme Court denied review in this case (for more on the lower court case, see this post by Jonathan Adler and this one by Ilya Somin); Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, joined by Justices Carol Corrigan and Joshua Groban:
Our denial of a petition for review does not communicate any particular view regarding the merits of the issues presented in the petition. Thus, all should understand that our decision to deny review in this case is not an endorsement (nor is it a rejection) of the statutory analysis undertaken by the Court of Appeal, which determined that bumble bees, a nonaquatic invertebrate, are susceptible to being listed as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act (Fish & G. Code, § 2050 et seq.; CESA) because that statute applies to fish (Fish & G. Code, §§ 2062, 2067 & 2068), and "invertebrates" are included within what the Court of Appeal deemed to be the applicable definition of "fish" (id., § 45) ["Fish" means a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals -EV]. (Almond Alliance of California v. Fish & Game Com. (2022) 79 Cal.App.5th 337, 341.)
Yet if experience is any guide, our decision not to order review will be misconstrued by some as an affirmative determination by this court that under the law, bumble bees are fish. A better-informed observer might ask: How can the court pass up this opportunity to review the Court of Appeal's interpretation of the Fish and Game Code, which seems so contrary to common knowledge that bumble bees are not a type of fish? Doesn't this clear disconnect necessarily amount to "an important question of law" (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.500(b)(1)) warranting this court's intervention, because the Legislature could not possibly have intended such a result?
