In a recent article reviewing the U.S. Supreme Court's environmental decisions over the last 30 years (1969-1999), Professor Richard Lazarus argues that "the Justices have never fully appreciated environmental law as a distinct area of law."¹

They perceive environmental law instead as merely an incidental factual context, in which environmental protection concerns are at stake, but there is nothing uniquely environmental about the legal issues being raised. The Justices, accordingly, fail to appreciate how the nature of the environmental concerns being addressed can sometimes be relevant to their resolution of those legal issues.²