Federal Judge Katherine Kotellar-Kelly, who is the same judge hearing the Microsoft anti-trust case in which nine states are arguing that the federal settlement didn’t go far enough, has granted a consent decree in the Salmon critical habitat case filed by the Building Industry of Washington (BIAW).

This means that the Salmon critical habitat designation over the 4-state area is vacated.

In her decision, she wrote, “…vacating the Rule is permissible,” and added, “Clearly, there is a problem with the current process underlying the critical habitat designation process.”

This also means that a new designation will need to be in place at some point in the future, although environmentalists are expected to file some kind of motion that attempts to tie the government’s hands in that regard.