New Release: Cannon on "The Green Movement and the Supreme Court"

New from Harvard University Press: Environment in the Balance: The Green Movement and the Supreme Court (April 2015), by Jonathan Z. Cannon (University of Virginia School of Law). The Press explains:

The first Earth Day in 1970 marked environmentalism’s coming-of-age in the United States. More than four decades later, does the green movement remain a transformative force in American life? Presenting a new account from a legal perspective, Environment in the Balance interprets a wide range of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, along with social science research and the literature of the movement, to gauge the practical and cultural impact of environmentalism and its future prospects.

Jonathan Z. Cannon demonstrates that from the 1960s onward, the Court’s rulings on such legal issues as federalism, landowners’ rights, standing, and the scope of regulatory authority have reflected deep-seated cultural differences brought out by the mass movement to protect the environment. In the early years, environmentalists won some important victories, such as the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision allowing them to sue against barriers to recycling. But over time the Court has become more skeptical of their claims and more solicitous of values embodied in private property rights, technological mastery and economic growth, and limited government.

Today, facing the looming threat of global warming, environmentalists struggle to break through a cultural stalemate that threatens their goals. Cannon describes the current ferment in the movement, and chronicles efforts to broaden its cultural appeal while staying connected to its historical roots, and to ideas of nature that have been the source of its distinctive energy and purpose.

A few blurbs:

"A remarkable and important book. Cannon approaches environmental law as both legal expert and humanist, seeking always the broad cultural context in which to view the Supreme Court’s uncertain ecological jurisprudence. He is an intent and perceptive reader of the Court’s decisions and what goes into them. He is also a fluent and convincing writer. Environment in the Balance will be widely read and largely influential.”—Peter Brooks, Princeton University

“Highly persuasive and insightful. Cannon reveals how the Supreme Court’s opinions reflect a larger culture war over environmentalism in American society. The scope and depth of his analysis is remarkable, and it allows him to offer a series of lessons for environmentalists hoping to meet the challenges of the future.”—Daniel Farber, University of California, Berkeley

More information, including the TOC, is available here.

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