Politics
Solicitor General Katyal Flunks Supreme Court History
At least he did at the oral argument in Connecticut v. AEP yesterday: [Lawyer for the state plaintiffs Barbara] Underwood, pressed to cite past court cases that might show this particular lawsuit could work in court, had no close parallels to rely upon. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., had pressed her to come up …
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CONTINUE READINGDamage Control for the States: Predicting the Outcome in AEP v. Connecticut
Yesterday I previewed Tuesday’s oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court’s American Electric Power v. Connecticut case, and two of my Legal Planet colleagues have already posted comments on certain aspects of those arguments. But let me cast discretion to the wind and predict the outcome of the case. Actually, it’s not that difficult a …
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CONTINUE READINGPreviewing the Supreme Court Oral Arguments in AEP v. Connecticut
On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the only environmental case on its docket this Term: American Electric Power v. Connecticut. At issue in this critically important climate change case is whether a coalition of states, New York City and several private land trusts can pursue a federal common law nuisance claim …
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CONTINUE READINGThe War Against State Environmental Protection
Although much of the attention has been on Congress, states have also seen major budget-cutting efforts, with a disproportionate amount of cuts targeted on state environmental agencies. As the NY Times reports, Governor LePage summed up the animus while defending his program in a radio address. “Maine’s working families and small businesses are endangered,” he …
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CONTINUE READINGIowa’s Attack on Animal Rights Groups and the First Amendment
Industrial farmers have a PR problem: large-scale food manufacturing tends to go hand-in-hand with incidents of animal abuse. We can disagree about the pervasiveness of the problem, but it is nevertheless a problem. Iowa’s solution? Criminalize the whistleblowers. From time to time, animal rights activists infiltrate corporate agribusinesses and film various abuses, such as pigs …
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CONTINUE READINGOf Wolves and Men
It looks like one of the losers in the budget compromise will be the wolf. The Tester-Simpson rider, attached to the compromise federal budget bill, will delist wolves from the federal endangered species list in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Utah. Heather Hansen, at CU Boulder, has a detailed blog post on the wolf. The …
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CONTINUE READINGRepublicans Hate Their Grandchildren
Eleven days ago, I was relieved that the Administration stood firm on anti-EPA riders, but asked, “what will the level of EPA funding be? If Congress and the White House agree to serious cuts that starve the agency of necessary personnel, then the absence of a rider is a Pyrrhic victory.” Well, now we know …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother Sane Conservative on Climate
Nancy Stiles is the new Republican State Senator from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She believes in low government spending and decentralization. Libertarians like her. But importantly, she seems to have not been infected with the climate denial crazy of many in her party. While Republicans in the state Assembly have voted to have New Hampshire secede …
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CONTINUE READINGPathway to Farm Subsidies
Paul Ryan is one of the great intellectual and political frauds of our time. You don’t need to do much more than read through Paul Krugman’s and Jonathan Chait’s work eviscerating his budget proposal, which carries the Orwellian name of “Pathway to Prosperity.” But Legal Planet readers should be aware of something else. If there …
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CONTINUE READINGGood News from the Budget Negotiations?
It is, of course, absurd that the House, Senate, and White House are even negotiating about budget cuts in the midst of the Great Contraction. But it does seem that the environmental community has gotten something of a win — at least if you believe the Senators most closely involved in the negotiations: Under intense …
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