August 2, 2005

What Do Environmentalists Want from the Supreme Court?

With one Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the offing, and much speculation about the eventuality of others, what do environmentalists want from the Supreme Court? Are there environmental litmus tests that should apply? How does the Court affect environmental law?

Jay Austin, ELI’s Director of the Endangered Environmental Laws Program, and Professor Jonathan Cannon, Director of the University of Virginia Law School’s Center for Environmental Studies, provided overviews of the intersection of constitutional and environmental law before the Court and how the Court has shaped environmental law. We then had a discussion with our panelists about how nominees may shape the future of environmental law and whether environmental law may shape the future of Supreme Court nominations.

Panelists:
Jay Austin
Senior Attorney, Environmental Law Institute
David Bookbinder
Senior Attorney, Sierra Club
Jonathan Cannon
Professor, University of Virginia, Law School
Doug Kendall
Executive Director, Community Rights Counsel
John Kostyack
Senior Counsel, National Wildlife Federation

Moderator:
Leslie Carothers
President, Environmental Law Institute

See the C-SPAN archival Web site to order a video of the program.