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FAR-RIGHT ACTIVISM BY TWO FEDERAL COURTS RAISES ETHICS
ISSUES, THREATENS KEY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS
New Report Shows Long-Running Stealth Campaign
on Takings Clause; Bill to Expand Controversial Courts' Power
Set for Senate Action
Working through a pair of federal courts created by the Reagan
Administration, conservative legal activists have quietly
staged a highly successful 15-year campaign to reverse 190
years of binding legal precedent on the Fifth Amendment 'Takings
Clause.' The effort is designed to block local, state and
federal governments from enforcing land-use and environmental
laws by up-ending the long body of case law balancing community
rights against developers and other property holders.
The startlingly effective
campaign is revealed for the first time in a new
report by the Community Rights Counsel (CRC). The
report describes the series of watershed rulings that
has resulted, and shows how judges on the two courts
ignored procedural rules and binding precedent.
Dubbed the 'Takings Project,' the campaign began when
the Reagan Administration created the Court of Federal
Claims and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, through
which nearly all federal takings cases must pass. The two
courts were packed with the highest concentration of
ideological loyalists of any federal bench. Later, the
provision limiting terms on the Court Federal Claims was
quietly removed.
At the same time, a group of ultra-conservative
benefactors including Richard Mellon Scaife and others
began funding an intensive program to bring takings cases
before the two courts. These same foundations
simultaneously financed a series of luxury retreats for
federal judges, including the authors of every one of the
two courts' major takings opinions expanding the rights
of developers.
Now Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-MS) has placed a bill to expand
authority of these two controversial courts on his
'A-list' for floor action in June. Ironically, the
bill was written by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R- UT), one of
the most vocal opponents of judicial activism.
© 1998 Environmental Media Services |
