When startled, the dusky gopher frog covers its eyes, looks out, and covers its eyes again, as if playing peekaboo. This shy frog would seem an unlikely candidate to draw the attention of the Supreme Court. Yet the dusty gopher frog is the star of a case that will be heard Monday, Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For decades the dusky gopher frog’s habitat has been shrunk by fire suppression, human development and other factors. Today this species lives only in a few isolated ponds in southern Mississippi. Like...