Conservative Conservation.

During the 1990s several judicial and legislative challenges were made to environmental protection laws passed in previous decades. Reflecting a growing property-rights movement that sought to strengthen the economic rights of landowners against government attempts to protect the environment, the federal courts, packed with conservative, probusiness Reagan and Bush administration appointees, tended to favor private-property owners and developers over environmental litigants. By mid decade the Republican-controlled Congress also worked to reduce or eliminate environmental programs and policies, as well as limit the scope of environmental protection regulations.

Court Trends.

Targeting core environmental protection efforts, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (1969), Clean Air Act (1970), Clean Water Act (Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 1972), and Endangered Species Act (1973), advocates of strong property rights attempted to broaden the meaning of the " takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment to include partial takings. They also challenged state...