Dane Warren Sabin Center Summer Intern & Rising 2L at Columbia Law School On Thursday, June 25, the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare) withstood another Supreme Court challenge in King v. Burwell. The case focused on a question of statutory interpretation to determine whether those who purchased insurance […]
Bri Cornish Sabin Center Summer Intern & Rising 2L at Columbia Law School On Monday, June 8th, leaders from small island nations around the South Pacific issued the “People’s Declaration for Climate Justice.” The declaration unites the island nations, which are particularly vulnerable to the calamitous impacts of climate change, against large […]
Grant Glovin Sabin Center Summer Intern Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report, “Climate Change in the U.S. – Benefits of Global Action,” detailing the findings of the EPA’s Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) study, a peer reviewed project that seeks to assess climate change […]
Jessica Wentz Associate Director and Postdoctoral Fellow Climate change and its effects on temperature, precipitation, storm patterns, sea level rise, and other environmental processes have important implications for the construction, maintenance, and operation of buildings and infrastructure. Recognizing this, the Obama Administration has issued several executive orders directing federal agencies […]
By Michael B. Gerrard This morning the Hague District Court issued its decision in a lawsuit brought by the Urgenda Foundation against the State of the Netherlands. The court ordered the Dutch state to limit annual greenhouse gas emissions from the country to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. The government had […]
A recently passed Wyoming law now criminalizes certain kinds of data collection: specifically, unauthorized collection of natural resource data. The new Wyoming Senate Enrolled Act No. 61 outlaws the collection of “resource data”[1] on any “open land” – private, state, or even (under some interpretations) federal land – if the […]
By Michael B. Gerrard The remarkable Encyclical Letter issued last week by Pope Francis could be read as a primer on the importance and idealized operation of many of our environmental laws. The headings below are mine; the text is from the Vatican. National Environmental Policy Act 183. Environmental impact assessment should not […]
Jessica Wentz Associate Director and Postdoctoral Fellow Saturday, June 20 is World Refugee Day – an occasion for recognizing the plight of millions of people who have been forced to leave their homes due to conflict, persecution, natural disasters, and other circumstances beyond their control. The United Nations Refugee Agency […]