2022

By Rhett Larson & Dylan Hendel. Colonias are small, generally unincorporated communities of predominantly Hispanic residents located near the U.S./Mexico border that suffer disproportionately from water insecurity associated with inadequate drinking water quality and reliability and flooding risks. Many of the water insecurity challenges facing colonias’ residents stem from inadequacies in water law and environmental law. However, many legal obstacles to achieving water security in colonias stem from seemingly unrelated legal challenges, including voting rights, land title and land use issues, and lack of access to effective legal assistance, particularly in securing support from existing federal programs. Each of the four border states–Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California–have dealt with water insecurity challenges facing colonias in a variety of ways. In this article, we explore those challenges facing colonias’ residents in…

By Sean Krieg.   On April 1, 2021, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals told taxpayers to “shoulder[] the burden” of New York City’s climate mitigation expenses without any help from major fossil-fuel producers, marketers, or distributors. The court made this unfortunate assessment while affirming the dismissal of the City’s claims against oil and gas companies responsible for over eleven percent of all industrial methane and carbon pollution since the industrial revolution. The City had sued for financial assistance with the costs of protecting its residents from the impacts of the climate crisis—a crisis these companies played a major role in creating and aggravating. In its complaint, the City emphasized how these particular defendants deliberately obfuscated climate science to promote their products, despite their advanced understanding of the global harms resulting…

By Steven Ferrey. The much-lauded advantage of the U.S. federalist legal system of separation of legal powers among separate levels of federal, state, and local government is credited with seeding innovation, experimentation, and diversity as a positive variable in the resilient American legal system. Now, U.S. separation of power within the U.S. system of law poses a legal barrier to addressing climate change or rapidly transitioning to sustainable infrastructure. Inferior levels of state and local government now are placing their legal ‘thumb’ on and are legally blocking implementation of the recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021 Infrastructure Law) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. This article analyzes elements supporting these legal barriers and relevant precedent. Concerning this most important sustainability legislation in a generation, successful implementation matters for the…

By John C. Dernbach and Scott E. Schang. In his enormously influential writings on the public trust doctrine, Professor Joe Sax argued that its core idea could, and should, be expanded beyond the natural resources to which it had been historically subject. He made that point forcefully in an essay entitled Liberating the Public Trust Doctrine from Its Historical Shackles. “At its heart,” he wrote, “the public trust doctrine is not just a set of rules about tidelands, a restraint on alienation by the government or an historical inquiry into the circumstances of long forgotten grants.” Rather, he said, courts should resolve competing claims of public use and private ownership by examining expectations concerning the use of particular resources. “The central idea of the public trust is preventing the destabilizing disappointment of…

By Keith H. Hirokawa, Cinnamon P. Carlarne, Karrigan S. Börk, & Sonya Ziaja. Although the needs of the public health, safety, and welfare vary across time and space, human survival requires functioning natural systems. It is no exaggeration to say that, either cumulatively or individually at a relevant scale, interruptions to ecosystems, atmospheric systems, the geosystem, or the hydrological cycle cause major disruptions in the ability of such systems to maintain the planet as a habitable place. Ensuring that natural systems are functional, limiting actions that disturb those systems, and maintaining important aspects of ecosystems as they respond to climate change, all seem appropriate targets for regulation and community empowerment. At this point in time, “[h]uman society has never had a more pressing need to understand its dependence on nature” and maintain…

Gregory C. Sisk & Michael Heise In our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the federal courts, extended now into a third decade, we find the persistence of ideological influence in Establishment Clause decisions for the period of 2006–2015. Because a non-partisan judiciary is essential to preserve the rule of law, we should sound the alarm when partisan influences appear to be weighting the outcome.At the same time, one might take comfort in a systematic narrowing of the partisan gap in this most recent ten-year period for our study. For 1996–2005, we had found an Establishment Clause claimant’s chances for success were approximately 2.25 times higher before a judge appointed by a Democratic President than one appointed by a Republican President. By this 2006–2015 period, the Establishment Clause claimant…

Matthew A. Seligman Reforming the Supreme Court is at the center of the political and legal landscape for the first time in generations. The growing gap between the ideological composition of the Court, the democratic will of the electorate, and perceived procedural irregularities in the appointment of Justices over the last five years, has fueled calls for expanding the size of the Court. Those calls have triggered renewed efforts to repair the appointments process through term limits and a regularized appointments schedule. But in an age of peaking partisanship, the bipartisan cooperation that would be necessary for that proposal to pass seems far out of reach.Full Article.

Jason P. Nance & Michael Heise Recent data indicate that a majority of schools now have regular contact with law enforcement officers, transforming the educational experience for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide. The proper role of police officers in schools, if any, has been hotly debated for years. But this debatewas elevated to an unprecedented level during the summer of 2020 following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and others, precipitating national calls to “defund the police” and leading many school districts to reconsider their relationships with law enforcement agencies. This debate over whether police officers belong in schools continues today. While proponents argue that a police presence is necessary to keep students safe, the existing empirical literature assessing the efficacy of school police officer programs in creating safe environments…

Benjamin J. McMichael & W. Kip Viscusi  Punitive damages remain unique in the American legal system. Awarded in the civil context with none of the protections offered in criminal law, courts levy punitive damages to punish and deter. The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly stated that courts may only seek to achieve these two goals when imposing punitive damages. A closer reading of the Court’s punitive damages jurisprudence, however, reveals another goal that has largely been ignored: predictability. Unlikepunishment and deterrence, predictability is not a purpose for which to award punitive damages. Instead, the Court requires that, when awarded, the level of punitive damages must be predictable. Failure to provide fair notice of the penalty for which a defendant may be liable amounts to a violation of…

Danika Marzillier From white sandy beaches and jagged, snow-capped mountains, national monuments and even some parks in urban neighborhoods, America’s federally managed public lands cover over a quarter of the country. From citizens looking to increase their daily step goals to all-out adventure enthusiast vacationers, a large and diverse group of Americans use these lands every day. Although public lands may often be imagined as places only for hikers and outdoor aficionados, their value to the general community should not be overlooked. Public lands offer breathtaking views, contribute to economic value, and conserve wildlife. They preserve historic sites, promote active lifestyles, and provide moments of Zen for the often all-too busy American.Full Article.