Supreme Court Decides the Mineral King Case: Sierra Club v. Morton

April 1972
Citation:
2
ELR 10034
Issue
4

At long last, the Supreme Court has decided Sierra Club v. Morton, 2 ELR 20192 (Apr. 19, 1972). Heralded as the decision that would adopt, clarify, and perhaps expand the liberal view of the Second Circuit on the standing of environmental groups to bring public interest lawsuits, Sierra Club v. Morton instead rejects the Second Circuit view in an opinion that avoids major constitutional issued and requires, somewhat imprecisely, that environmental groups allege individualized harm to themselves or their members in order to maintain actions. The Supreme Court's decision, emphasizing as it does undefined "individualized interests" in the matter in controversy, may trigger a new round of litigation over standing in the federal courts as the sufficiency of such interests is challenged. However, unless the federal courts read more into the opinion than the Supreme Court intended, the furor should quickly subside, as plaintiff environmental groups join the best individual plaintiffs in their actions and begin to allege harm to the individuals and to their organizations.

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Supreme Court Decides the Mineral King Case: Sierra Club v. Morton

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