Oil drilling continues to be a big debate in the courts. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is compiled with a split panel in the case that blocked oil drilling Thursday in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, “finding that federal authorities didn’t take a hard enough look at Shell Offshore Inc.’s plan.

Worried specifically about bowhead whales and hunting by local Eskimos, Judge Dorothy Nelson is on the fence about the topic. So is Judge Stephen Reinhardt. However, Judge Carlos Bea wrote that the two Carter appointees ignored the 9th Circuit’s recent decision in Lands Council v. McNair. Stated law.com: “A unanimous en banc court in that case reversed a similar panel — it also had two Carter judges and a dissenting George W. Bush appointee — and refused to enjoin a logging plan. That summer ruling has been taken as a major shift in circuit environmental law, signaling a new willingness to defer to executive agencies and refrain from intervening on behalf of environmental groups.”

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The high court is officially going green! Taking on five environmental cases for decision…it looks as if environmentalists should be cracking open the champagne and toasting. After several decades of pushing for people to get involved, with the courts now taking cases over such issues, change is obviously in the air.

According to Marcia Coyle at The National Journal, “traditional antagonists in these high court cases, environmental and business groups do seem to agree on at least one thing: The five pending cases are likely to be especially revealing of the still-emerging Roberts Court in an area of increasing national and international concern.”

The five cases presented in court will push the government to enforce the nation’s major environmental laws despite rejections from big businesses. In short, that means that environmentalists aka “the little guy” are beginning to stand up and have a voice when it comes to the law.

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Switching it up in the U.S. Supreme Court after a term where major issues involving guns and the death penalty were a regular chain of events. Now, according to staff writer Marcia Coyle at National Law Journal,  it appears that this term around, the issues are going to be a little less heated. Topics such as the environment, business, injured consumers, job bias victims, and the law enforcement are what matters most.

So, will this create a less stressful courtroom? She says yes, I say no.

We shall soon see…

And after the justices hold their summer conference meeting on Sept. 29 where they generally add cases from more than a thousand filed during the summer months, things may take a change and death penalty cases could appear yet again.

Still, for some, issues like the environment are worth dying over.

The bottom line is that when it comes to the court of law, nothing is drama-free.

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