1990s Supreme Court decisions systematically raised barriers to citizen environmental standing

Evidence

The Court’s decisions during the 1990s were precisely the opposite in their jurisprudential thrust. The Court repeatedly ruled against the citizen’s ability to maintain environmental lawsuits to promote environmental protection, while ruling in favor of the standing of economic interests that alleged that they were suffering from “needless economic dislocation produced by agency officials zealously but unintelligently pursuing their environmental objectives.” Indeed, the Court’s rulings were so systematic in raising barriers to citizen standing in environmental cases that one justice, frustrated in dissent, openly complained about what he described as the majority’s “slash-and-burn expedition through the law of environmental standing.” — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 596

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to Legal Systems course on courts, standing doctrine, and access to justice. — connects to: Legal remedies consistently fail to aid communities in environmental justice struggles; Scalia openly embraced bureaucratic delay as a tool to thwart environmental law — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 608; Much of the business community stopped opposing strict environmental law by the mid-1990s. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 712 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Courts reject impact-based environmental racism claims absent proven intentional discrimination #corroborates (0.80) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 327
• Fragmented Supreme Court majorities complicate lower courts’ interpretation of rulings #expands (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1570
• Much of the business community stopped opposing strict environmental law by the mid-1990s. #qualifies (0.72) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 712
• Front groups masquerade as grassroots citizens to weaken environmental protections #complicates (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2717