Professor Frank Files Brief in California Supreme Court Environmental Case

On September 21st, Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank `74 filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 19 California environmental law professors with the California Supreme Court in an important pending environmental law case.  

The case, Department of Finance v. Commission on State Mandates, involves a challenge by Southern California local governments to conditions imposed by California's Regional Water Quality Control Board on storm water permits the Board issued under the federal Clean Water Act.  A bare 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court justices previously held that those conditions constituted a state-mandated local program for which California taxpayers would have to reimburse the local government potentially billions of dollars.  

The State of California has petitioned the Supreme Court for rehearing, and Professor Frank's filed the amicus brief in support of the State's efforts.  On behalf of the law professors (including King Hall's own Professors Al Lin and Lesley McAllister), Frank argues that the Court's earlier decision could incentivize state officials to return its Clean Water Act permitting authority to federal officials; that the Court had fundamentally misinterpreted applicable state constitutional provisions regarding what constitutes a reimbursable state mandate on local government; and that state regulators had acted properly in issuing the challenged water pollution control permits.