ENSP 102 Lecture 5: Role of the courts, Stakeholders
12 Feb 2019
School
Department
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Professor
February 12, 2019
The Role of the Courts
● United States Supreme Court → United States Courts of Appeals → United States
District Courts
● State vs. state cases usually involve water rights
● How courts influence environmental policy
○ Gatekeeper function:
■ Standing: must have a reason to be in the courtroom
● Preliminary issue--before a court decide who wins or loses, they
can decide if you should even be there
● Courts rule over cases and controversies
● Sierra Club vs. Morton: Disney wanted to build a ski resort in the
middle of Sequoia national park, court was unsure if Sierra Club
should even be in the court. Court ruled that aesthetic,
recreational, and environmental injury are valid issues, Sierra Club
had to show that they used the park. The dissent in this case was
to give the environment standing
● Massachusetts vs. EPA--most important supreme court case
since 2000. Massachusetts wanted EPA to regulate greenhouse
gas emissions (CO2), EPA did not want to. Based upon losing
land over sea level rise, but EPA said they did not have standing
because there was no way to prove connection. However the
court ruled 5-4 they had standing, with Justice Kennedy as
winning vote.
● Climate change is not an easy thing to prove standing for
● Courts expanded standing in the 1970s but have restricted it in
some recent cases
■ Ripeness: dispute has to be a final agency action
○ Judicial review--interpret laws and regulations
■ Courts must decide if courts are unconstitutional
■ Courts must decide if a regulation is valid under the statute
■ Challenges to climate change rules
■ The wall will obstruct species migration and water rights
■ Bison in yellowstone
■ When a court is dealing with the regulations, there can be deference to an
agency’s expertise on scientific or technical issues
■ When trump epa wants to get rid of an obama regulation, they must go
through the same process, notice and comment, and then they have to
replace it with the process again--WOTUS
○ Determine remedies
■ Fines: money, jail time
Document Summary
United states supreme court united states courts of appeals united states. State vs. state cases usually involve water rights. Standing: must have a reason to be in the courtroom. Preliminary issue--before a court decide who wins or loses, they can decide if you should even be there. Sierra club vs. morton: disney wanted to build a ski resort in the middle of sequoia national park, court was unsure if sierra club should even be in the court. Court ruled that aesthetic, recreational, and environmental injury are valid issues, sierra club had to show that they used the park. The dissent in this case was to give the environment standing. Massachusetts vs. epa--most important supreme court case since 2000. Massachusetts wanted epa to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (co2), epa did not want to. Based upon losing land over sea level rise, but epa said they did not have standing because there was no way to prove connection.
