February 19, 2009

Environmental Law in the Roberts Court: The Early Returns and the Next Few Years

A luncheon and lecture
with Richard Lazarus
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
and Austin Wake Scott Visiting Professor of Law,
Harvard Law School

 

Co-sponsored by:
The Environmental Law Institute
Latham & Watkins LLP

The Supreme Court’s docket may continue to dwindle in recent years, but its interest in environmental law has most certainly not been waning. Just the opposite. Since the new Chief Justice took the center seat on the bench in October 2005, the Court has granted review in a remarkably wide variety of significant environmental law cases under a host of federal statutes, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and Superfund law. During the current October Term 2008, the Court will be deciding at least six potentially significant environmental law cases. Professor Lazarus reviewed the recently decided and currently pending cases on the Court’s environmental law docket, suggest what trends may be emerging, and speculate about the potential impact of an Obama Administration on the Court and environmental law.