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Administrative Law Keyed to Mawshaw
Sierra Club v. Morton
Citation:
405 U.S. 727 (1972)Facts
The Mineral King Valley is an area of great natural beauty in the Sierra Nevada Mountains adjacent to Sequoia National Park. The U.S. Forest Service approved a plan by Walt Disney Enterprises to develop a $35 million ski resort complex in the valley, designed to accommodate 14,000 visitors daily. The development would include motels, restaurants, swimming pools, parking lots, ski lifts, and other facilities. The State of California proposed to build a highway through Sequoia National Park to provide access to the resort, and a high-voltage power line would also traverse the park.
The Sierra Club, which favored maintaining Mineral King largely in its present state, filed suit against federal officials seeking to block the development. The Sierra Club sued as a membership corporation with “a special interest in the conservation and sound maintenance of national parks, game refuges, and forests.” However, the organization did not allege that its members used Mineral King Valley for any purpose or would be directly affected by the development. Instead, the Sierra Club relied on its longstanding concern with and expertise in environmental matters as the basis for its standing to sue.
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