INTEREST GROUP LITIGATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

During the past decade federal courts have become an important forum for many environmental conflicts. In the early 1970s environmental groups initiated many of these cases, putting government agencies charged with enforcing environmental regulation on the defensive. By the beginning of the 1980s business interests had assumed the offensive, especially at the appellate levels, placing government agencies squarely in the crossfire of the two groups. Federal judges tended to treat the opposing interests even-handedly, although the plaintiff in a case tended to have an advantage. It appears that environmental groups will be pressed into assuming the offensive once more as federal agencies reduce their enforcement efforts under the Reagan Administration.