This comment on Katrina Wyman and Danielle Spiegel-Feld’s new book, Local Greens: Cities and Twenty-first Century Environmental Problems, argues that cities are a cause of and solution to many environmental problems, that skepticism of cities’ relative efficacy in the area of environmental regulation is mostly a function of them being constrained by an institutional structure that privileges state and federal power over local power, and that cities possess the appropriate incentives and capacity to address even those environmental problems that are global in scale. On these scores, I agree wholeheartedly with Wyman and Spiegel-Feld, whose book is an excellent study of New York City environmentalism. Indeed, I am even more bullish about the city’s capabilities, even as I argue that hostility to municipal power is a significant impediment.
Income inequality is a national preoccupation, and the public’s imagination is captured by the astronomical incomes of Valley tech billionaires and...
The U.S.-Iran war highlights the underappreciated national security benefits of China’s electrostate strategy.
News headlines regularly announce that...
From a legal and economic perspective, the document discusses housing affordability as a key global issue for well-being, economic growth, and...
During oral arguments in a child abuse case, some Texas Supreme Court justices seemed open to the possibility that the amendment protected parental...
To address climate change, our energy systems need to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy resources. There is a tendency to think this...
Environmental groups and their allies have seen two of the bedrock statutes of modern environmental law (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act) eroded...
Filed Jul 27 2026
The Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic at UVA Law filed this amicus brief on behalf of Members of Congress, Jared...
This comment on Katrina Wyman and Danielle Spiegel-Feld’s new book, Local Greens: Cities and Twenty-first Century Environmental Problems, argues that...
This paper, presented as the William J. Brennan Jr. Lecture at the Oklahoma City University School of Law in November 2025, argues that American...
This week, Virginia's State Air Pollution Control Board was in court asking the Virginia Court of Appeals to revive its ill-conceived plan to leave a...
“In a time when disinformation is being laundered through government agencies, the responsibility to protect evidence-based care falls to courageous...
Following the Supreme Court’s momentous decision last term in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, much of the scholarly discussion has focused on...
Trump’s assault on local government should usher in a new era of self-sufficiency.
Contrary to previous research and press accounts, we find limited evidence that persons who worked the polls in the past, including the 2020 election...
The first principle of insurance reflects the fundamental lesson of the tragic California fires: you can’t get something for nothing. If expected...
Puerto Rico. Detroit. Stockton. Arkansas. Each of these places stands as a testament to the import of municipal debt crises and their capacity to...
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s holding that the Eighth Amendment prevents governments from...
Symposium on the Twentieth Anniversary of Kelo v. City of New London
The power of eminent domain is an inherent attribute of sovereignty, not a power...