Impact on U.S. environmental law
meets with members of Earthjustice, 2016. Earthjustice has been a critical player in a number of important, precedent-setting cases regarding
environmental protection in the United States. In the 1972 Supreme Court case
Sierra Club v. Morton, Earthjustice (then known as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) helped establish the right of citizens to sue for environmental damages. The case ultimately forced the
Walt Disney Company to drop its plans to develop an enormous ski resort in the
Mineral King valley in California's
Sierra Nevada Range. The lawsuit blocked any further development or private use of the land which has since been incorporated into the
Sequoia National Park. In 1993, the organization (still then known as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) filed a lawsuit to block the development of the
New World gold-silver-copper mine that was planned to be sited about four miles from the northeast entrance to
Yellowstone National Park. The lawsuit was a victory in that the
district judge ruled that not only could the subsidiary mining company (in this case Crown Butte Mines, Inc., a Montana company) who holds the mining claims and is developing the mine plan be held liable, but even the parent corporation (in this case Noranda Corporation, a Canadian company), could be held liable for violations of the Federal
Clean Water Act (Ekey, 1997). In 1998, Earthjustice helped local community groups convince the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw an approval to construct a
uranium enrichment plant between two low-income, predominantly African-American communities near
Homer, Louisiana. It was the first time a government agency had formally embraced the principle of "
environmental justice" in its decision-making. In the 2006 Supreme Court case
Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, Earthjustice attorneys helped a coalition of state governments and
conservation groups force the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
fight global warming by limiting
greenhouse gas emissions. It was the first Supreme Court case to ever address the issue of
climate change. In 2020, a federal court granted a request by the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to strike down federal permits for the controversial
Dakota Access Pipeline, finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it affirmed federal permits for the pipeline originally issued in 2016. Other suits have been less successful: In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the
US Navy in a suit brought in part by Earthjustice, which ordered Navy personnel to stop the use of certain types of
sonar if a
marine mammal such as a
dolphin or
whale was sighted within 2,200 yards. Among other details, the court noted that in 40 years of such sonar training there had not been a documented case of injury or death to a marine mammal that could be directly attributed to the sonar. In 2017, the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a suit against the EPA with the goal of banning the pesticide
chlorpyrifos. The court ruled that an environmental coalition, including Earthjustice, failed to follow procedure by filing the suit with the court before filing their appeal of a 2007 EPA ruling allowing the pesticide. However, on August 9, 2018, the court ruled that chlorpyrifos must be banned within 60 days from that date. On-going cases include: Since June 2025, Earthjustice and attorney Paul Schwiep provide legal counsel to a coalition led by
Friends of the Everglades, the
Center for Biological Diversity, and the
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, seeking an injunction against the installation of the
South Florida Detention Facility. Located in the
Everglades, home of the
Florida Panther and the
Florida bonneted bat, Earthjustice argues the
Florida camp is managed in violatation of the
National Environmental Policy Act, tribal cultural-resource protections, and the
Government in the Sunshine Act. == Legislative positions ==