Constitutional Assignment
Sierra Club1. In the article Low Bench Marks from the Sierra Magazine, A key goal of anti-environmental judges is?
2. In the same article how is the Constitution’s commerce clause being reinterpreted? What impact has this had on the protection of wetlands?
3. High Country News
www.hcn.org search for article "Tipping the scales" or put "court" into search,4. What is "venue shopping" and why is it getting harder to fine one that environmental groups would want?
5. Check the
July 19, 2004 Supreme Court case Title:NORTON v. S. UTAH WILDERNESS ALLIANCE6. Did citizens get standing in this case? Would BLM be forced to protect WSA’s as required by law?
Non biased background Commerce Clause
From the FindLaw site
answers the following questions:
From the section Commerce Clause as source of national police power:
From the section Is there an Intrastate Barrier to Congress’s Commerce Power?
9. In the opinion of the writers of this section, what might be the impact of this decision?
10. Which Justice seems the most likely to limit Congress use of the Commerce Clause (additional viewpoints on this Judge can be found at the Community Right Council and in the Washington Post Oct 14 issue.
Non biased background Taking clause
From the
11. Define a regulatory taking
12. From the section on Regulatory taking distinguish between eminent domain and police power use of the 5th
13. At the end of the section on Regulatory taking what do they think is the major difficulty for someone to show in court that a taking has occurred?
Two approaches of attacks on environmental legislation
Expand taking in the courts
14. From the
Community Rights Council link to Combats Anti-Environmental Judicial Activism: In their opinion how are anti-environmental groups trying to dismantle the communities effort to protect community welfare?15. How in their opinion is this being done?
16. From one of the Takings Watch Newletters cite one case and give was it a taking or not (for example check out Sept 04, page 2?
17. Why is the Tahoe case important?
18. From the newsroom what is the concern with Justice Thomas?
Pass taking bills
From the
Georgetown Law School19. What are taking bills?
20. What is the connection between taking bills and wildlife?
On the other side we have
21. What type of property rights cases do they get involved with?
22. What about Lake Tahoe case from their viewpoint?
Has use of Commerce Clause gone too far with ESA?
23. From the tab for About Defenders, in brief what is their mission?
Has Federal government followed EO 12630?
24. What is this site opinion of Federal government buying land for wildlife purposes?
25. Which President issued the Executive Order 12630 -- Governmental Actions and Interference with Constitutionally Protected Property Rights otherwise known as the Takings Executive Order (you can find some info at this site and use google search)
Supreme Court Case
26. Did a taking exist in the Supreme Court case Agins v. City of Tiburon