Twenty Years of Environmental Law: Role Reversals between Congress and the Executive, Judicial Activism Undermining the Environment, and the Proliferation of Environmental (and Anti-Environmental) Groups

This article, celebrating twenty years of the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, recounts the years 1980-2000 of the modern environmental law movement. The article claims that the 1990s witnessed creative statutory interpretations, particularly by the Clinton Administration. It also explains the judicial expansion of the takings clause and standing and ripeness principles as breaks on environmental regulation or its enforcement, Finally, the article examines the rise of both environmental and non-environmental non-profit groups as active participants in environmental litigation, emphasizing their regionalization