This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land: Allowing Third Party Standing to Address Environmental Harms on the Federal Public Lands

摘要

In Wilderness Society v. Kane County, the Tenth Circuit held that The Wilderness Society, a nonprofit focused on preserving wilderness, did not have standing to sue the county for infringing on the federal government's property rights. The county asserted a right of way over the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and opened up that land to off-road vehicles in conflict with the Monument's management plan. The Tenth Circuit held that The Wilderness Society had run afoul of the prudential standing prohibition on third party standing because it was suing to enforce the federal government's property rights rather than its own. The issue of when an environmental organization has standing to represent the government's rights on public land deserves a deeper analysis than the court's brief summary. This Note will investigate the argument that The Wilderness Society and other environmental organizations can actually satisfy the requirements of third party standing to sue on the federal government's behalf for violations on the public land resulting in environmental harms. These requirements include a genuine hindrance to the right-holder bringing suit and a close relationship between the right-holder and the party bringing suit. The Note will consider these requirements in the context of Revised Statute 2477 claims and through violations of oil and gas leases and grazing permits on the federal public land. The Note will argue that, although courts may not find third party standing in all such situations, the issue deserves a thorough analysis when it is implicated.