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Course Description

Summary

Lines are being drawn for a battle over who will control environmental problems now and in the future, and the U.S. Constitution is the ammunition.  Our Constitution has a profound influence on laws and policies that address the most pressing environmental issues of our time: climate change, species and biodiversity conservation, pollution control, sustainability, rights to a quality environment, individual property rights and liberty interests, to name a few. These environmental issues are molded by features of our federal Constitution, including the Commerce, Supremacy, Takings, and Due Process Clauses; the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments; and principles and doctrines such as standing, executive authority and federalism.  For a document that almost no one has read, everyone seems to have an opinion about the Constitution.  Through in-class analysis and discussion, individual research and writing, and reading cases, legal analysis, and current reports, we will endeavor to understand and be prepared to take part in this national debate.