A question of justice: Equity in environmental litigation, 1974-1991

Substantial evidence suggests that minorities and the poor are exposed to d isproportionately high levels of environmental risk While there are numerou s possible causes for inequities in the distribution of pollution, some res earchers have identified actions of the federal judiciary as one element co ntributing to bias in environmental protection Environmental justice advoca tes have suggested that penalties for violating environmental regulations a re systematically lower in poor and minority areas, signaling that pollutio n is more acceptable in these areas. Using data from all civil cases died u nder the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Reco very Act between 1974 and 1991, I test the proposition that penalties in th ese cases disadvantage poor and minority areas. The results from this analy sis demonstrate that such penalties are not, in bet, smaller in these areas , suggesting that the judicial contributions to inequities in the distribut ion of environmental risk are negligible.