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Environmental Justice and the Constitution

In a recent essay, David Coursen asks an important and unexamined question: Are environmental justice policies, which seek to avoid disproportionate environmental burdens on minority and poor communities, on a "collision course" with the Equal Protection Clause? In concluding that a potential collision is more illusory than real, Coursen offers a number of reasons why governmental actions to promote environmental justice have not been challenged in court and, even if they were to be, would not be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.

Te-Moak Tribe of W. Shoshone of Nev. v. Department of the Interior

The Ninth Circuit held that the BLM violated NEPA when it approved a mining company's amendment to a plan of operations for an existing mineral exploration project in Nevada. The BLM took a hard look at the direct impacts of the amendment and its discussion of reasonable alternatives was proper, but...

Tomlinson v. Alameda, County of

A California appellate court held that a subdivision development project is not exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The county deemed the project exempt from CEQA under the categorical exemption for in-fill development. But the proposed subdivision...

Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court abused its discretion in enjoining the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) from effecting a partial deregulation of Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA), a variety of alfalfa genetically engineered to tolerate the herbicide Roundup, and in proh...

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance v. BLM

The Tenth Circuit rejected environmental and citizens' groups challenge to a 2003 BLM resource management plan amendment allowing natural gas development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The groups alleged that BLM violated NEPA when it refused to study in detail their proposal to phase development ...

KB Home Ind., Inc. v. Rockville TBD Corp.

An Indiana appellate court held that the economic loss doctrine does not preclude a property owner from pursuing negligence claims against a company that previously operated a manufacturing site on adjacent property. If a plaintiff is not seeking damages involving the benefit of the bargain or other...

Curd v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC

The Florida Supreme Court held that commercial fishermen can recover for economic losses caused by the negligent release of pollutants even if they do not own any property damaged by that pollution. The case arose after waste from a fertilizer company entered a pond, resulting in a loss of underwate...

Hornbeck Offshore Servs. v. Salazar

A district court granted an offshore service company's motion to enjoin the federal government's six-month general moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The company established a likelihood of successfully showing that the federal government acted arbitrarily and capricious...