In Memoriam: David Sive (1922-2014) and Joseph Sax (1936-2014)
| Date | 01 November 2014 |
| Author |
11-2014 NEWS & ANALYSIS 44 ELR 10929
In Memoriam: David Sive (1922-2014)
and Joseph Sax (1936-2014)
by Nicholas A. Robinson
Nicholas A. Robinson is University Professor on the Environment and Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin
Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law Emeritus at Pace University School of Law, where
he also serves as Co-Director for the Center for Environmental Legal Studies.
In 1995, Professor of Law David Sive and Pace’s Law
Faculty established this lectureship, in honor of Lloyd
K. Garrison, to commemorate Scenic Hudson Preserva-
tion Conference v. Federal Power Commission.1 Known a s
the Storm King case, this ruling inaugurated what we today
call environmental law. Two individuals above all others
guided and framed the jurisprudential foundations for
environmental law. We honor these founders today. eir
lives were intertwined.
Pace’s faculty insisted that David Sive give the inaugural
Garrison lecture. David did so, but insisted that his friend
and fellow legal pioneer for the stewardship of nature, Prof.
Joseph Sax, deliver the second lecture in the series. Lloyd
had passed away four years before. It was timely to com-
memorate Lloyd’s remarkable civic career and his seminal
contribution to the birth of contemporary environmental
law in the batt le to safeguard Storm King Mountain. A
descendent of abolitionist Wil liam Lloyd Ga rrison, Lloyd
was a preeminent civil liberties attorney, former dean of
the University of Wisconsin Law School, and a leader of
the New York Bar Association, who had been called to ser-
vice on many governing boards for federa l agencies under
three presidents. I came to know Lloyd before his passing,
conferring with him on historic preservation law matters.
When Consolidated Edison Company (Con Ed) decided
to build a huge hydroelectric power plant on Storm King,
the northern portal to the great ord of the Hudson River
highlands, citizens and local governments were appalled.
is was no NIMBY response. Con Ed had forgotten that
these fabled highlands had inspired the Hudson River
School of la ndscape painting. is artistic rendering of
nature in turn engendered the birth of America’s conser-
vation movement of the late 19th century. e Hudson
1. Scenic Hudson Preservation Conf. v. Federal Power Comm’n (FPC), 354
F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965).
was also instrumental to the birth of this nation: Here,
the patriots’ control of the highlands had kept the British
from uniting their forces. Here, above Storm King, George
Washington assembled soldiers from across the freed colo-
nies for their nal enca mpment before being demobilized.
e U.S. Military Academy at West Point overlooks the
Hudson River and Storm King Mountain.
Con Ed had assembled the political and legal power to
secure approvals for its plan. A small coalition of citizens, led
by Francis Reese and others, persuaded Lloyd to represent
their cause of preserving Storm King. Lloyd served as legal
counsel to the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference.
With his able associate, Albert K. Butzel, who delivered a
Garrison Lecture in 2010, Lloyd Garrison won a landmark
decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
granting the citizens standing, reversing the Federal Power
Commission’s (FPC’s) grant of a license to Con Ed, and
determining that aesthetics, history, and nature conserva-
tion had equal standing to economic interest, and must be
considered before the FPC could lawfully act.
Among those who joined the Scenic Hudson Preser-
vation Conference’s legal battle was the Atlantic Chapter
of the Sierra Club. David Sive and A lfred Forsythe had
formed the Atlantic Chapter in the early 1960s, despite
heated opposition from Californians who felt that the
Sierra Club belonged there and were worried that the orga-
nization would be stretched too thin. Dave chaired the
Atlantic Chapter. In those days, I recall how its Conserva-
tion Committee debated issues from Maine to Florida. e
chapter’s center was with Sive in New York, campaigning,
for example, to save Olana, home and studio of the Hud-
son painter Frederick Church. Having the prestige of the
Sierra Club meant a lot to the Storm King cause. Sive rep-
resented the Sierra Club in its intervention in Storm King.
While litigation battled on, David Sive also agreed to
represent a similar grassroots community movement in
Citizens Committee for the Hudson Valley v. Volpe.2 Federal
ELR 20006 (2d Cir. 1970).
Editors’ Note: is Comment was originally presented at the 2014
Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law on March 26,
2014, at the Pace University School of Law. For more about the
lecture series, see http://www.law.pace.edu/lloyd-k-garrison-lecture-
environmental-law.
Copyright © 2014 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.
To continue reading
Request your trial