Question

Animal Rights Law and Politics: What change did the Sierra Club case bring to standing law?

Case: Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972)

Answer 1

The case of the United States Supreme Court, Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972) was an early effort to preserve an environment.The Sierra Club sued to shield the whole Mineral King Valley in California's Sequoia National Forest from being transformed by The Walt Disney Corporation into a ski resort.Eventually, the court denied the right of the Sierra Club to sue, because the group claimed no particular harm to itself, but it was this case on which Justice William O. Douglas argued in his popular dissent that "the general interest to preserve the ecological order of nature would contribute to the conferral of status on natural artifacts to sue for their own protection.So it can be as mountains, alpine meadows, ponds, streams, estuaries, beaches, ridges, treetops, swamplands, or just weather that experiences the disruptive stresses of new technology and daily existence.(p.742-743) The court further indicated whether the Sierra Club would be willing to change the case for a more positive conclusion by demonstrating that at least one of its leaders was interested.