Sierra Club v. Morton
| Sierra Club v. Morton | |
|---|---|
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| Argued November 17, 1971 Decided April 19, 1972 |
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| Full case name | Sierra Club v. Rogers Clark Ballard Morton, Secretary of the Interior, et al. |
| Citations | 405 U.S. 727 (more)
92 S. Ct. 1361, 31 L. Ed. 2d 636 (1972).
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| Prior history | Sierra Club v. Hickel, 433 F.2d 24 (9th Cir. 1970). |
| Subsequent history | Sierra Club v. Morton, 348 F. Supp. 219, (N.D. Cal. 1972) |
| Holding | |
| A person has standing to seek judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act only if he can show that he himself has suffered or will suffer injury, whether economic or otherwise. In this case, where petitioner asserted no individualized harm to itself or its members, it lacked standing to maintain the action. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stewart, joined by Burger, White, Marshall |
| Dissent | Douglas |
| Dissent | Brennan |
| Dissent | Blackmun |
| Powell and Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
| Laws applied | |
| Administrative Procedure Act | |
Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972), is a Supreme Court of the United States case on the issue of standing under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court rejected a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking to block the development of a ski resort at Mineral King valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains because the club had not alleged any injury.
The case prompted a famous dissent by Justice William O. Douglas arguing that trees should be granted legal personhood.
Mineral King is a seven mile by one mile subalpine glacial valley in Sequoia National Forest then abutting Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California and only accessible by a dirt county road. In 1965 the United States Forest Service began circulating a prospectus calling for bids for recreational developments at Mineral King. In 1969 the Forest Service accepted a bid by The Walt Disney Company proposing a $35 million ski resort accommodating 1.7 million annual visitors and at any one time 20,000 skiers. By comparison, Disneyland had cost $17 million. The resort would require construction of a new twenty mile highway and 66,000 volt power line through Sequoia National Park, then a nine story parking structure and a cog-assisted railroad to ultimately take visitors into the valley.Walt Disney began personally buying private property around Mineral King through Retlaw Enterprises and, after contributing heavily in the California gubernatorial election, 1966, received a personal promise from Ronald Reagan that the state would fund the highway.
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