This article examines the way that one environmental justice organization advised its members about litigation and legal strategies. As many scholars would predict, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice discouraged activists from using litigation as the primary strategy to advance their agenda. However, they also offered activists advice about how to control the role of lawyers to prevent them from dominating the movement. In addition, the organization offered activists ideas for ways of making litigation and legal strategies more accessible to grassroots participation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Capek, StellaM. 1993. “The ‘Environmental Justice’ Frame: A Conceptual Discussion and an Application.”Social Problems, 40:5–24.
2.
Szasz, Andrew. 1994. Ecopopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
3.
Bullard, RobertD. 1990. Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
4.
Bullard, RobertD. 1993. “Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement.”Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots. BullardRobert D. Boston: South End Press.
5.
Cable, Sherry, HastingsDonald W, MixTamara L. 2002. “Different Voices, Different Venues: Environmental Racism Claims by Activists, Researchers, and Lawyers.”Human Ecology Review, 9:26–42.
6.
Roberts, TimmonsJ., MelissaM., Toffolon-Weiss. 2001. Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline. New York: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Cole, LukeW, SheilaR, Foster. 2001. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press.
8.
Scheingold, Stuart. 1974[2004]The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy and Political Change. New Haven: Yale University Press.
9.
McCann, MichaelW.1994. Rights at Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Olson, SusanM. 1984. Clients and Lawyers: Securing the Rights of Disabled Persons. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
11.
Jones, LynnC. 2005. “Exploring the Sources of Cause and Career Correspondence Among Cause Lawyers.”203–38The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make. StuartScheingold, AustinSarat. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
12.
Jones, LynnC. 2006. “The Haves Come Out Ahead: How Cause Lawyers Frame the Legal System for Movements.”182–96Cause Lawyers and Social Movements. AustinSarat, StuartScheingold. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
13.
McCann, MichaelW, HelenaSilverstein. 1998. “Rethinking Law's ‘Allurements': A Relational Analysis of Social Movement Lawyers in the United States.”Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities. AustinSarat, StuartScheingold. New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
Polletta, Francesca. 2000. “The Structural Context of Novel Rights Claims: Southern Civil Rights Organizing, 1961–1966.”Law and Society Review, 34,2:367–406.
15.
Marshall, Anna-Maria. 2005. “Idle Rights: Employees' Rights Consciousness and the Construction of Sexual Harassment Policies.”Law and Society Review, 39,1:83–124.
16.
Albiston, CatherineR. 2005. “Bargaining in the Shadow of Social Institutions: Competing Discourses and Social Change in Workplace Mobilization of Civil Rights.”Law and Society Review, 39,1:11–50.
17.
Bailey, Conner, KellyAlley, FaupelCharles E, CathySolheim. 1995. “Environmental Justice and the Professional.”Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies, and Solutions. BunyanBryant. Washington, DC: Island Press.
18.
Emigh, RebeccaJean. 1997. “The Power of Negative Thinking: The Use of Negative Care Methodology in the Development of Sociological Theory.”Theory and Society, 26,5:649–684.
19.
Cable, Sherry, TomShriver. 1995. “The Production and Extrapolation of Meaning in the Environmental Justice Movement.”Sociological Spectrum, 15:419–42.
20.
Sherman, ScottD. 2003. Strategies for Success in the Environmental Justice MovementPh.D. DissertationUniversity of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
