It dealt with the designation of 1544 acres of private land in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as "critical habitat" for the dusky gopher frog by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

[2][4] Unit 1 has five ephemeral ponds, which are of "remarkable quality" according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, but does not have open canopies, another required characteristic for it to be a habitat for the frogs.

[4][5] Pacific Legal Foundation represented Markle Interests, the owner of some of the land that was leased to Weyerhaeuser and whose case was joined to Weyerheuser's before the Supreme Court.

[6] The Eastern District Court of Louisiana upheld the designation in 2013,[7] and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed it 2-1 in 2016, holding that the Fish and Wildlife Service was not arbitrarily designating Unit 1 as "critical habitat", and that while under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service "may exclude any area from critical habitat if [it] determines that the benefits of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying such area as part of the critical habitat", a decision not to exclude based on economic impact was not subject to judicial review.

[5] Oral hearings occurred on October 1, 2018, prior to Justice Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Court.