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by Carla Chung Mattix (Author)
Many Americans revere their national parks as places of natural beauty and cultural significance--but few realize how often these landscapes have been shaped by the courtroom as much as by conservation policy. With more than 3,500 lawsuits involving the National Park Service, litigation has defined, defended, and sometimes even threatened the character of the parks. Without these legal fights, the Gettysburg battlefield might be covered with strip malls and the Grand Canyon reduced to a mining site.
This book examines five landmark Supreme Court cases involving national parks--Gettysburg, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and the National Mall. Each chapter blends legal analysis with historical context, tracing the origins of the parks and the disputes that brought them before the nation's highest court. Spanning nearly a century, these cases reveal how the Court has shaped park policy, land use, Native American rights, water law, and free speech. Through these pivotal decisions, National Parks and the Supreme Court offers a new lens on the contested terrain of the national parks, where legal, environmental, and cultural values collide. By exploring the courts' influence on public lands, it deepens our understanding of the complexities of managing America's most cherished landscapes.Author Biography
Carla Chung Mattix served for more than twenty-five years as an attorney for the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of the Solicitor. Her work focused on environmental and natural resources law, cultural and historic preservation, and Native American issues. She holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.
