Reagan’s election coincided with the passage of two laws he opposed

Evidence

Modern environmental law’s second decade was marked by immense contradiction and persistent expansion. The first year, 1980, itself witnessed the election of Ronald Reagan as president in November, immediately followed by congressional passage during the lame-duck session in December of two extraordinarily far-reaching laws of the very kind Reagan had campaigned against: the federal Superfund imposed sweeping liability on generators, transporters, and disposers of hazardous substances, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act reaffirmed the legitimacy of federal ownership of vast acreage in Alaska and limited commercial exploitation of much of its resources in favor of conservation and preservation objectives. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 445

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the chapter-0 claim that ‘U.S. environmental law has survived every political assault and grown stronger after each’ — this is a concrete instance of statutory momentum outlasting a hostile administration. — connects to: Reagan could not repeal the redress commission and instead enlarged it; Framing a repeal referendum mischaracterized the law’s actual effect — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 11394

Broader Connections

• Reagan could not repeal the redress commission and instead enlarged it #responds-to (0.75)
• Framing a repeal referendum mischaracterized the law’s actual effect #responds-to (0.72) — , The Rod and the Child, 11394