U.S. Supreme Court
Deconstructing Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group
The EPA Could Well Lose This Challenge to Its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Efforts
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the most important environmental law case of the current Term: Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. Based on those arguments–and, more importantly, the justices’ questions and comments–it appears that EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act’s …
CONTINUE READINGPreviewing Next Week’s Climate Change Arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court
Big Stakes and Big Players in This Year’s Biggest Environmental Case
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the biggest environmental law case of its current Term, Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA. Legal Planet colleagues Ann Carlson and Dan Farber have already posted their thoughts on the case. Let me add mine. Utility Air Regulatory Group involves EPA’s authority to regulate stationary …
Continue reading “Previewing Next Week’s Climate Change Arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court”
CONTINUE READINGNew Standing Barriers Erected for Federal Court Climate Change Litigation
Recent Ninth Circuit Decision Likely to Spell the End of Much Citizen Suit Litigation Over Climate Change in Federal Courts
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court’s famously ruled in Massachusetts v. USEPA that petitioners in that case had standing to sue the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court to challenge EPA’s failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Observers then could have been forgiven for thinking that this ruling flung open …
Continue reading “New Standing Barriers Erected for Federal Court Climate Change Litigation”
CONTINUE READINGWhere Have You Gone, Justice Stevens?
The Supreme Court Misses Justice Stevens’ Influence & Perspective on Environmental Law
With the commencement of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new Term, it’s appropriate to note–and bemoan–the absence of a strong environmental voice on the Court these days. Until his retirement in 2010 after a quarter century on the Court, Justice John Paul Stevens ably served in that role. By contrast, none of the current justices seems …
Continue reading “Where Have You Gone, Justice Stevens?”
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Rules for Property Owner in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District
The U.S. Supreme Court today decided Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. But unlike the previous two, unanimous Takings Clause rulings issued this Term by the justices in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States and Horne v. Department of Agriculture, the decision in Koontz reflected a sharply divided Court, in a …
CONTINUE READINGU.S. Supreme Court Rules for Property Owners–Again
Observers continue to await the third and most significant property rights case on the Supreme Court’s docket this Term–Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District–which should be released later this week. In the meantime, another property rights case was decided by the justices earlier this month that, while largely overlooked by the media, represents …
Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court Rules for Property Owners–Again”
CONTINUE READINGNot With a Bang, But With a Whimper…
As the current U.S. Supreme Court term winds down–the justices’ final opinions are due next week–attention begins to turn to the Court’s next session, scheduled to begin in October 2013. Until this week, the justices had one environmental law case on their docket for next year: U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council, No. 12-625. …
Continue reading “Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper…”
CONTINUE READINGHow the Pacific Rivers Council case could affect environmental law
As Rick has already noted, a couple of weeks ago the Supreme Court granted cert to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council. Rick expressed pessimism about whether the Ninth Circuit’s decision would be upheld in the Supreme Court. I think he’s probably right about that, but there are …
Continue reading “How the Pacific Rivers Council case could affect environmental law”
CONTINUE READINGU.S. Supreme Court Grants Review in Pacific Rivers Council Case
Today the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in a major forestry and NEPA case from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council, No. 12-623. The case will be argued and decided in the Court’s next (2013-14) Term. The issues the justices have agreed to consider in Pacific Rivers Council are threefold: …
Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court Grants Review in Pacific Rivers Council Case”
CONTINUE READINGDid the Supreme Court just shut the courthouse door on environmental plaintiffs?
It’s not an environmental law case, but the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International has a lot of environmental law folks talking. Clapper was a lawsuit that sought to challenge the constitutionality of a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allowed the government to monitor a range of communications by …
Continue reading “Did the Supreme Court just shut the courthouse door on environmental plaintiffs?”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
