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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Ind. Decisions - More on "Associational standing stands"
As the ILB was apparently the first to report yesterday (here), the Indiana Supreme Court has failed to grant transfer in Save the Valley v. Indiana-Kentucky Electric. Today, Grace Schneider of the Louisville Courier Journal writes:
Three Indiana environmental organizations have won a major legal victory that establishes the right of citizens' groups to intervene in legal and administrative disputes.The case involves the Clifty Creek power plant near Madison. But lawyers on both sides say the action by the Indiana Supreme Court this week has broad legal and public-policy implications for government agencies and special-interest groups across the state.
The high court declined to consider an Indiana Court of Appeals decision that upheld the right of interest groups to intervene in lawsuits and to challenge government permits and regulations on behalf of their members.
At issue was whether a group could intervene in a dispute if its members are affected, or whether the group itself -- through such things as its building, property or employees -- had to be affected.
It's an important question because grassroots organizations rely on being able to represent their members in challenging government agencies and intervening in lawsuits, said Mike Mullett, an Indianapolis-based lawyer who represented the environmental groups -- Save the Valley, Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens Action Coalition.
"Obviously, we're very pleased," Mullett said in a telephone interview yesterday. The ruling "allows organizations to go to bat for their members. That's just critically important to citizen participation."
Tony Sullivan, the lead co-counsel for Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp., which owns the power plant, said he was disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision not to consider the case.
"We don't think the applicable Indiana law was applied in this case," said Sullivan, a lawyer with Barnes and Thornburg, an Indianapolis firm that represented the utility. * * *
A Marion County judge sided with the power plant in 2003, ruling that an office building, property or employees of Save the Valley and other groups must be affected by the permit to have standing in the case.
But the appeals court ruled in January that the groups do have standing under a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
That decision, in a case from Washington state, created the doctrine of "associational standing," giving groups the right to represent members. About 20 states, including Kentucky, have adopted the standard.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 18, 2005 08:03 AM
Posted to Administrative Law | Environment | Ind. App.Ct. Decisions