The Moral Limits of Jurisdiction

• Author: Harold G. Leggett/Beau James Brock
• Position: Senior Manager of Harold Leggett & Associates, an environmental & resource management consulting firm, after previously serving as Secretary of the Louisiana Depar tment of Environmental Quality/Confidential Assistant to the Secretary of the department (Peggy Hatch) after serving in the same capacity for Harold Leggett
• Pages: 32-35

Page 32 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2010

Any policy that seeks to improve the quality

of life must spring from the hearty trunk

of the community in order to support the

diverse boughs and f‌lowering crown of so-

ciety. is isn’t only metaphor but reality:

the Environmental Protection Agency is attempting

to reduce emissions of ozone, particulate matter, and

greenhouse gases using standards developed without

real consensus and without fully understanding their

impact on citizens and on states charged with main-

taining compliance with the Clean Air Act. e agen-

cy is driving initiatives through the its own internal

policy process to achieve a political end, potentially

causing our citizenry’s limbs to break under the weight

while undermining its root principles.

e American people do not see our republic as in-

fallible. An early example came in 1798, when both

Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions of protest to

meddling from Washington, declaring, “e rightful

remedy against all unauthorized acts done under color

of [law] against the states was a nullif‌ication by those

sovereignties.” ese protests took on heightened im-

plications in 1832 when South Carolina, in decrying

the economic inequities caused by the protectionist

tarif‌fs designed to support f‌ledgling northern manu-

facturers, passed a nullif‌ication ordinance. John C.

Calhoun detailed the political and legal basis of nul-

lif‌ication and what it meant for the state and the rest

of the country: “e crisis stemmed from the ‘radical

error’ that the general government ‘is a national, and

not, as in reality it is, a confederated government.’”

is sectional economic struggle reached fever

pitch when the governor of South Carolina called for

volunteers to defend the state in case of invasion, and

President Andrew Jackson responded with equal swift-

ness, declaring, “Nullif‌ication [is] treason against the

United States.” e felling of the tree that is our re-

public was derailed by a political compromise on the

amount of the tarif‌fs.

But “states rights” is no longer a code phrase for

denial of civil liberties, and nullif‌ication has returned

as a real weapon in defense of environmental federal-

ism. According to the Tenth Amendment Center, as

of last October some 37 states have introduced “state

sovereignty resolutions” and seven have passed them.

Clearly, to return to our metaphor, boughs are about

to break.

e lack of full public participation in environ-

mental policymaking, which includes not only con-

tributions from citizens but from corporations as well,

has never been more evident than in the ongoing uni-

lateral agency actions to strengthen National Ambi-

ent Air Quality Standards for two criteria pollutants,

ozone and particulates, and to restrict emissions of

greenhouse gases for the f‌irst time.

e Moral Limits of Jurisdiction

As the states and the public face new rules on emissions under the Clean Air Act, the

authors f‌ind that environmental policy devoid of economic feasibility equals ethical

bankruptcy by policymakers to the detriment of all citizens and their economic liberty

Harold G. Leggett

Beau James Brock

Harold G. Leggett, Ph.D., is Se nior

Manager of Harold Leggett & A ssociates,

an environmen tal & resource manage ment

consu lting firm, after prev iously servi ng

as Secretary of the

Louisiana D epart-

ment of Environmen-

tal Quality. Beau James Broc k serves as

Condential Assistant to the Secretary of

the departme nt (Peggy Hatch) after serving

in the s ame capacit y for Harold Leggett. This

article reects onl y the personal opinions of the autho rs does not

consititute an of cial position of the state of L ouisiana.