Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that environmental groups could intervene in litigation to use the Environmental Rights Amendment of the Pennsylvania Constitution to support a regulation even though the Department of Environmental Protection had declined to make that argument. See Shirley v. Pennsylvania Legislation Reference Bureau, No. 85 MAP 2022 (Pa. July 18, 2024). Because the courts have not fleshed out all the nuances of what the Environmental Rights Amendment means, this superficially procedural decision may have important implications for how that constitutional jurisprudence develops.
Continue reading the full article, published by The Legal Intelligencer August 2, 2024. Reprinted with permission.