Sierra Club v. Morton (the name of the new Secretary of Interior) was already under review by the Supreme Court when Trees made its way to William O. Douglas, one of the Justices to decide on the case. [1] Because the Constitution's Case or Controversy Clause prohibits advisory opinions, the Court reasons that the legal wrongs protected by the Administrative Procedure Act must at minimum meet the prevailing constitutional requirements of standing. The dissenting justices were Douglas, Brennan, and Blackmun. Those who merely are caught up in environmental news or propaganda and flock to defend these waters or areas may be treated differently. 405 U.S. 727 (1972) 92 S.Ct. flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. The High Sierra wonderland, located in Sequoia National Forest, is generously endowed with lakes, streams, cascades, caverns and matchless mountain vistas. The sole question is, who has standing to be heard? The court ruled in a 4-3 decision that the Sierra Club lacked standing to sue. The court's precedent would have far-reaching consequences on the ability of plaintiffs to challenge environmental damage and harm in courts. Page 727. INT. Tech and Engineering - Questions & Answers, Health and Medicine - Questions & Answers, Working Scholars® Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. As early as 1894, Attorney General Olney predicted that regulatory agencies might become "industry-minded", as illustrated by his forecast concerning the Interstate Commerce Commission: The Commission ... is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. Benjamin has a Bachelors in philosophy and a Master's in humanities. Sierra Club v. Morton, 348 F. Supp. Get free access to the complete judgment in SIERRA CLUB v. MORTON, (N.D.Cal. The case of Sierra Club v. Morton was a major decision in environmental law and established that special interests in environmental protection was not sufficient to grant standing in court. Mineral King was ultimately never developed and was absorbed into Sequoia National Park. Stewart wrote: 'But if a 'special interest' in this subject were enough to entitle the Sierra Club to commence this litigation, there would appear to be no objective basis upon which to disallow a suit by any other bona fide 'special interest' organization, however small or short-lived. Inanimate objects are sometimes parties in litigation. Justice Douglas' dissent[16] included his concern that regulatory agencies become too favorable with their regulated industries (regulatory capture): Yet the pressures on agencies for favorable action one way or the other are enormous. Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972), is a Supreme Court of the United States case on the issue of standing under the Administrative Procedure Act. Cicchetti, Charles J., Anthony C. Fisher, and V. Kerry Smith. The Sierra Club filed preliminary and permanent injunctions against federal officials to prevent them from granting permits for the development of the Mineral King Valley. Summary: The Petitioner, the Sierra Club, brought this action for a declaratory judgment and an injunction to restrain federal officials from approving an extensive skiing development in the Mineral King Valley in the Sequoia National Forest. [7][4], Michael McCloskey had just ousted David Brower as executive director of the Sierra Club and, emboldened by the Second Circuit's decision in Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, he sought a more direct, and litigious, approach to environmentalism by setting up the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, later renamed Earthjustice. Although the Sierra Club lost the case, as a practical matter they won the war. [10] Tulare County filed amici briefs in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court supporting the Secretary. SIERRA CLUB v. MORTON Sierra Club v. Morton" is the first Supreme Court decision to squarely decide the issue of whether public conservation groups alleging only a generally-shared public injury have standing to initiate judicial review.2 The issue arose as a result of a United States Forest Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972), is a famous United States Supreme Court case on the issue of standing in environmental lawsuits. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp. Black & White Taxicab & Transfer Co. v. Brown & Yellow Taxicab & Transfer Co. Hinderlider v. La Plata River & Cherry Creek Ditch Co. District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman. Webdoc: 1972 Sierra Club v. Morton The Mineral King Valley is an area of great natural beauty nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County, California, adjacent to Sequoia National Park. Stewart noted that giving the Sierra Club standing would lead to a difficulty in determining valid standing in future cases. SIERRA CLUB v. MORTON(1972) No. The issue of standing is important because it keeps the court from co-opting democratic legislative processes. His dissent argued that such a legal identity would prevent widespread environmental degradation. - Definition & Techniques, Quiz & Worksheet - The Life Course Perspective, Quiz & Worksheet - Factors Affecting Personality, Quiz & Worksheet - Components of a Person's Environment, Quiz & Worksheet - Dimensions of Successful Aging, Quiz & Worksheet - Person-Environment Congruence in Older Adults, Praxis World and U.S. History: Content Knowledge Flashcards, Biology 202L: Anatomy & Physiology II with Lab, Biology 201L: Anatomy & Physiology I with Lab, California Sexual Harassment Refresher Course: Supervisors, California Sexual Harassment Refresher Course: Employees. Create your account, Already registered? Those who hike the Appalachian Trail into Sunfish Pond, New Jersey, and camp or sleep there, or run the Allagash in Maine, or climb the Guadalupes in West Texas, or who canoe and portage the Quetico Superior in Minnesota, certainly should have standing to defend those natural wonders before courts or agencies, though they live 3,000 miles away.'. SIERRA CLUB v. MORTON, (N.D.Cal. The Sierra Club's petition for certiorari was granted and the case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 17, 1971, with U.S. That is why these environmental issues should be tendered by the inanimate object itself. So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life. Douglas joined Justice Blackmun in criticizing the court's narrow ruling on standing. Plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. In 1969, the Sierra Club, an environmental conservationist group, sued the Secretary of the Interior over a decision allowing Disney to build a resort in Mineral King Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Acting as a public defender of the environment, the Sierra Club sued the secretary of the interior to enjoin approval of a ski resort development at Mineral King Valley in Sequoia National Forest. The voice of the inanimate object, therefore, should not be stilled. The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes—fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The 4-3 ruling would be important in future cases where environmental issues were brought before the Supreme Court. Benjamin has a Bachelors in philosophy and a Master's in humanities. Brief for Petitioner at 7, Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972) [hereinafter cited as Petitioner's Brief]. The most significant and well-known dissent was the one argued by Justice Douglas who argued that the court had erred in not recognizing that the environment could have standing in a court case. Sierra Club v. Morton No. It has been part of the Sequoia National Forest since 1926, and is designated as a national game refuge by special Act of Congress. Yet that is the aim of Sierra Club and SBCC in this lawsuit. Perhaps the bulldozers of 'progress' will plow under all the aesthetic wonders of this beautiful land. In 1965 the United States Forest Service began circulating a prospectus calling for bids for recreational developments at Mineral King. This case provides an ideal vehicle for clarifying the law … [1] On September 16, 1970, Judge Ozell Miller Trask, joined by Judge John Kilkenny, vacated judgment and remanded, finding that the Club did not have standing to sue because it had made no allegation that it would be affected by Disney's ski resort. On April 19, 1972 the Supreme Court affirmed 4-3. Earn Transferable Credit & Get your Degree. The … [17] On February 26, 1976, the Forest Service released its final EIS for a resort accommodating 8,000 skiers. And although the Supreme Court finally upheld the decision of the Ninth Circuit, the decision came with Douglas’s dissent and with his endorsement of Stone’s theory. The case of Sierra Club v. Morton was a landmark decision involving standing in environmental law and would be an important precedent in cases like Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation and Friends of Earth Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services. "Plaintiff Sierra Club is a non-profit corporation organized and operating under the laws of the State of California, with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California since 1892. That is not the present question. Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 405. Then there will be assurances that all of the forms of life which it represents will stand before the court—the pileated woodpecker as well as the coyote and bear, the lemmings as well as the trout in the streams. § 1857h-5. United States Supreme Court. During the 95th United States Congress, Congressman John Hans Krebs attached a measure adding Mineral King to Sequoia National Park to a large omnibus “Park Barrel Bill”, which President Jimmy Carter then signed into law in 1978. The Court rejected a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking to block the development of a ski resort at Mineral King valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains because the club had not alleged any injury. [5] Disney's master plan attracted national media attention from Harper's Magazine[6] as well as consistent, critical coverage by The New York Times. Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and Associate Attorney General William Rehnquist, whom both joined the Court on January 7, 1972, did not participate in the case. Argued November 17, 1971. American Well Works Co. v. Layne & Bowler Co. Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida, Mt. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal. Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures, Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church & State. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636. Powell and Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. “An Econometric Evaluation of a Generalized Consumer Surplus Measure: The Mineral King Controversy”. SIERRA CLUB V. MORTON revocable permit unrestricted in area." The majority's decision was written by Justice Stewart and he was joined by Burger, Marshall, and White. [4] The Sierra Club then sued the United States Secretary of the Interior in San Francisco federal court to block development of Disney's famous ski resort. The case was argued before the Supreme Court on November 17th, 1971. [4], The Forest Service received 2,150 comments in response to its June 1974 preliminary draft Environmental Impact Statement. The Sierra Club in its complaint alleges that "[o]ne of the principal purposes of the Sierra Club is to protect and conserve the national resources of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." ", On June 23, 1972 the Sierra Club amended its complaint to allege that club outings in the valley would be harmed by a massive ski resort, added several natural persons as plaintiffs, and added a new claim for relief under the National Environmental Policy Act. [Wiley, Econometric Society]: 1259–76. The district court granted these … Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 740 (1972). {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons [1] Writing for the Court, Justice Potter Stewart, joined by Justices Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, agreed with the Ninth Circuit that the Sierra Club had not alleged any legal interest in the case. Justice Douglas authored a famous dissent arguing that the court should have considered extending standing to the environment harmed as they did for corporations or ships. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle. Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972) Sierra Club v. Morton. 1972) case opinion from the US District Court for the Northern District of California Solicitor General Erwin Griswold personally appearing. It merely means that, before these priceless bits of Americana (such as a valley, an alpine meadow, a river, or a lake) are forever lost or are so transformed a to be reduced to the eventual rubble of our urban environment, the voice of the existing beneficiaries of these environmental wonders should be heard. Douglas concluded his dissent arguing that the court's ruling placed the environment at risk stating: 'The voice of the inanimate object, therefore, should not be stilled. 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