Oppose Confirmation of Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Court of Appeals
06/07/05

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senator,

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the political voice of the national environmental community. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of Members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the press.

LCV urges you to oppose the confirmation of Justice Janice Rogers Brown to a lifetime appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Justice Brown has indicated, in her decisions and speeches, a basic hostility to the concept of regulating private interests for the public good that is the foundation of our laws that protect natural resources or public health.

In Landgate, Inc. v. California Coastal Commission, 953 P.2d 1188 (Cal. 1998) the majority found that there was not a "taking" of property when the Commission denied a construction request. In her dissent, Justice Brown argued that the Commission, asserting jurisdiction where it turned out not to have any, was a taking, and dismissed public needs as a "relentless siphon," and called "pure democracy" "incompatible with . . . rights of property."

Similarly, Justice Brown was the lone dissenting voice in San Remo Hotel v. City of San Francisco, 27 Cal. 4th 643, 692 (2002). In that case, a City ordinance required the residential hotel owner to pay a conversion fee before displacing residents and becoming a tourist hotel. Her opinion states that "a regulation is a taking if . . . it is merely designed to benefit one class of citizens at the expense of another," and declares that private property "is now entirely extinct in San Francisco."

The D.C. Circuit is critical to environmental protection because it is this court that is empowered to hear most cases challenging environmental rulings and regulations issued by the EPA, the Department of the Interior, and other federal agencies. Justice Brown has shown in her opinions and other writings that she is likely to strike down many of the laws and regulations that protect the public health and environment because they may impinge on what she views as the overriding rights of property.

We urge you to vote "no" on confirming Janice Rogers Brown to the federal bench. LCV's Political Advisory Committee will consider including votes on this issue in compiling LCV's 2005 Scorecard. If you need more information, please call Tiernan Sittenfeld or Barbara Elkus in my office at (202) 785-8683. 

Sincerely,

Deb Callahan
President, LCV