Against Environmental Rights Supremacy
Quinn Yeargain* | 26.5 | Citation: Quinn Yeargain, Against Environmental Rights Supremacy, 26 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1323 (2024).
Environmental rights are having a moment. Though only eight states and territories have expressed environmental rights provisions in their constitutions, a trickle of positive developments has seemingly turned into a stream. Supreme courts in Hawaiʻi and Pennsylvania gave some force to their states’ rights provisions beginning in the 2010s—and the scope of protections guaranteed by each right continues to be fine-tuned by litigation. In 2021, New York voters added an environmental rights provision to their state’s constitution—the first such addition of the twenty-first century. More states may well add similar amendments to their constitutions.
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*Assistant Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School.