University of Colorado Law Review

This year the 27th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference brought scholars and lawyers from all over the country to discuss one of the most salient legal issues today—the propriety of national injunctions. Federal district court judges are increasingly halting the executive branch from enforcing its signature policies nationwide—fashioning remedies that go beyond the parties and the court’s usual geographic purview. National injunctions have touched the lives of many of us. They run the gamut, enjoining policies ranging from environmental protection to immigration policies to civil Continue reading →

University of Colorado Law Review Volume 91, Issue 3 2020 A Conversation with Associate Justice Elena Kagan Justice Elena Kagan[1] Annual John Paul Stevens Lecture University of Colorado Law School October 22, 2019 S. James Anaya: Good evening, everybody. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jim Anaya. I am the Dean of the University of Colorado Law School. I’d like to welcome all of you to the Eighth Annual Stevens Lecture, featuring a discussion with United States Supreme Court Justice Continue reading →

A curious provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) precludes class actions challenging expedited removal, the system of fast-track deportations for individuals who have recently entered the country. The same provision authorizes nationwide relief in non-class actions, but it requires that plaintiffs in such non-class systemic challenges file their claims in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia and that they do so within sixty days of the challenged change to the system. This framework should matter to scholars of nationwide injunctions Continue reading →

Introduction “Judge Blocks Trump . . . .”[2] This headline became a media staple when reporting on lawsuits challenging various Trump Administration policies—many of which sought injunctive relief on a nationwide scale. Two United States Attorneys General have challenged judges’ authority to issue these nationwide injunctions and called for “our judiciary to re-examine a practice that embitters the political life of the nation, flouts constitutional principles, and stultifies sound judicial administration.”[3] In the popular and political mind, the nationwide injunction begins and ends in the courts. To jurists Continue reading →

Introduction of Secretary Jewell as Keynote Speaker Martz Winter Public Lands Symposium Getches-Wilkinson Center March 1, 2019 John Leshy, who served eight years as Interior Department Solicitor under Bruce Babbitt, has said in a reflective moment that the Solicitor has two duties: respect the institution and respect the people. And so it is for the Secretary, the highest officer of the Interior Department. Trustee for the tribes. Trustee for the rivers and the wildlife. Trustee for the land. Yes. Respect that high institution. Give it Continue reading →

Introduction Since the 1970s, Indian policy has been guided by a federal commitment to tribal self-governance. The exact contours of this policy differ, but at a minimum, it is supposed to guide the approach of the federal government in its relations to tribes. Where state and private interests collide with tribal interests, the role of the federal government is often as a mediator of competing claims. In a sensitive and insightful piece, Professor Charles Wilkinson illustrates the way collaboration is supposed to work. He describes Continue reading →

The major federal public land management agencies (the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and Department of Defense) have increasingly adopted a language that did not exist twenty-five years ago—the language of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are the range of benefits that ecological resources provide to humans, from water purification and pollination to carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat. The scientific discipline advancing the ecosystem services framework arose in the mid-1990s and quickly became a central strategy for fusing ecology Continue reading →

Introduction The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is among the strongest biodiversity protection laws anywhere in the world.[2] Its animating principle is that we, as a society, should do whatever it takes to prevent the extinction of the plants and animals that share our planet[3]—a moral intuition shared by most Americans.[4] As preventative medicine, the ESA has been a wild success. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of the 1,747 species listed as threatened or endangered have gone extinct.[5] So far, the Act Continue reading →

Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. . . . The national park idea, the best idea we ever had. –Wallace Stegner[2] [P]arks are not ‘America’s best idea’ . . . . The ‘best idea’ language has the potential to alienate more people than it attracts; . . . If asked to choose between the Grand Canyon or a landmark decision on Civil Rights that guarantees me equal protection under the law, Brown v. Board of Education wins Continue reading →

The United States’ infrastructure is in trouble. Tunnels are falling apart,[2] and water pipes are lead-laced.[3] Independent analyses rate U.S. infrastructure an appalling D+,[4] and countless government studies confirm the need to mend, expand, and upgrade public infrastructure in a wide range of sectors.[5] Prominent progressive[6] and conservative[7] policymakers, from Donald Trump[8] to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,[9] concur that America’s infrastructure must be transformed. So at the outset of the Trump Administration, many hoped Congress and the President could reach a bipartisan infrastructure agreement. Members of Congress Continue reading →