Sierra Club v. Morton

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Sierra Club v. Morton
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 17, 1971 Decided April 19, 1972
Full case name	Sierra Club v. Rogers Clark Ballard Morton, Secretary of the Interior, et al.
Citations	405 U.S. 727 (more) 92 S. Ct. 1361, 31 L. Ed. 2d 636
Case history
Prior	Sierra Club v. Hickel, 433 F.2d 24 (9th Cir. 1970).
Subsequent	Sierra Club v. Morton, 348 F. Supp. 219, (N.D. Cal. 1972)
Holding
A person has standing to seek judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act only if he can show that he himself has suffered or will suffer injury, whether economic or otherwise. In this case, where petitioner asserted no individualized harm to itself or its members, it lacked standing to maintain the action.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority	Stewart, joined by Burger, White, Marshall
Dissent	Douglas
Dissent	Brennan
Dissent	Blackmun
Powell and Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Administrative Procedure Act

Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972), is a Supreme Court of the United States case on the issue of standing under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court rejected a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking to block the development of a ski resort at Mineral King valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains because the club had not alleged any injury.

The case prompted a famous dissent by Justice William O. Douglas suggesting that in response to ecological concerns, environmental objects (such as a valley, an alpine meadow, a river, or a lake) should be granted legal personhood by the public.