Abstract
Some predicted that the Court and litigants would make sustainability principles juridically relevant. Yet this article takes a fresh look and finds express invocation of sustainability still lacking not only in the U.S. Supreme Court but virtually throughout the U.S. federal judicial system comprised of the Supreme Court, 13 federal appellate courts, and 94 federal district courts. Part II tells the story of sustainable development's continued march as a legal principle. Part III engages sustainability jurisprudence before the U.S. Supreme Court and otherwise in the federal court system. It concludes that not only the U.S. Supreme Court but the entire federal judicial system seems at worst hostile to, at best agnostic about, and most likely ignorant of, sustainability. What is surprising is the scant extent to which litigants invoke sustainability, except, for the most part, in amicus briefs in recent cases involving corporate disclosure requirements, suggesting overlooked opportunity. If at all, "greenwashing" cases - lawsuits alleging deceptive claims of sustainability presently percolating throughout the federal system - offer the most likely scenario for the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize sustainability.
Recommended Citation
James R. May,
Still Not At All: Environmental Sustainability in the Supreme Court,
92
UMKC L. Rev.
723
(2024).
Available at:
https://irlaw.umkc.edu/lawreview/vol92/iss4/2
Included in
Environmental Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons