UCLA School of Law

This symposium contribution traces developments in the environmental justice (EJ) field since the author’s Greening the Ghetto: A Theory of Environmental Race Discrimination, 41 U. KAN. L. REV. 271 (1992) argued that state constitutional, statutory, and administrative remedies could better address inequities than could federal law. The essay surveys empirical analyses, legal scholarship, federal and state case law, and administrative regulation to evaluate how greatly approaches have changed and advances have followed. Since 1992, the record of EJ progress has been mixed. In federal and state courts, Title VI and equal protection claims have generally been unsuccessful, although arguments using the latter have occasionally prevailed. In contrast, administrative agency responses have proven more productive than those of the judiciary, with California leading the way. Regional planning and informal intra-governmental agreements have also adopted EJ objectives. Thus EJ as a form of civil rights restoration has been widely recognized, while the means of achieving it continue to evolve.