In 1977, after seven years of intense debate, Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA),¹ one of the most far-reaching federal land-use laws. The Act was intended to alleviate widespread environmental abuses caused by surface coal mining operations by imposing stringent uniform federal standards on mining operations. Enforcement of the standards rests with participating states through federally approved state programs, or with the federal government in lieu of states that do not want to assume that responsibility.

This controversial regulatory scheme was immediately besieged with constitutional challenges in several federal district courts, which produced sharply inconsistent decisions.² Courts in Tennessee and Iowa rejected challenges based on the Fifth and Tenth Amendments and the Commerce Clause.³ However, in two other cases, Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Association v. Andrus⁴ and Indiana v. Andrus,⁵ district courts in Virginia and Indiana declared that certain portions of the Act violate the Constitution and permanently enjoined their enforcement. In separate opinions handed down last month, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts and unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Act. In Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Association,⁶ the Court held that the "steep slope" reclamation standards mandated by the Act do not violate the Commerce Clause, the Tenth Amendment, or the Just Compensation and Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment. Focusing on the six "prime farmland" provisions and 15 other provisions of the Act, the Court also held, in Hodel v. Indiana,⁷ that those provisions do not violate the Commerce Clause or the Fifth and Tenth Amendments.The two decisions are a blow to the industry, which had hoped that it would obtain some relief from the Act's stringent and comprehensive limitations on surface mining. More broadly, the opinions appear to represent a broad endorsement of the power of Congress to impose various environmental controls of the states and private entities.