In February, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the federal Clean Water Act regulates pollutants that migrate through groundwater. … More
Category: overcriminalization
As wildfires become more catastrophic, are we overlooking free-market ways to lower the cost of reducing them?
Like many people, I’ve been monitoring, with dread, updates on the wildfires burning in California. The Camp Fire, which is … More
If the goal is to guide human action, environmental markets work better than indecipherable regulations
One of the greatest strengths of free market environmentalism approaches to environmental problems is that they facilitate the development of … More
In 2018, will the federal government be an ally in the fight against overcriminalization?
In this year’s pre-Christmas news dump, the Department of Interior announced it was reversing the agency’s prior interpretation of the … More
Protecting the environment does not require us to abandon the rule of law
This week, briefing began in WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Department of Justice, a case of critical importance to anyone concerned about … More
How should environmentalists measure virtue?
An old criticism of socialism is that it measures virtue by how generous someone is with other people’s money. Many … More
The inevitable overregulation and overcriminalization of environmental law
A four-year battle between the federal government and Duarte Nursery over the farm’s plowing of a field to plant wheat—for … More
Has Justice Kennedy tied EPA’s hands on WOTUS?
Is EPA tied to Justice Kennedy’s mushy test for Clean Water Act jurisdiction? No. Federalism, the fact that it is a criminal statute, and Kennedy’s acknowledgment that the statute is hopelessly vague all justify EPA substantially narrowing bureaucrats’ authority.
Does the environment trump constitutional limits on federal power?
In Utah prairie dog decision, the Tenth Circuit undermined cooperative conservation of the species and tore up constitutional limits on federal power.
Is everything a crime under the Endangered Species Act?
DOJ’s resistance to environmental groups’ effort to radically expand overcriminalization under the Endangered Species Act shows the long-term impacts of earlier, successful challenges to overcriminalization.
