I am forwarding this from the national Sierra Club because it expresses one of my strong concerns regarding the outcome of this year's election. Jo Hudson ---------- Subject: ELECTION COUNTDOWN: Court Disaster? Date: Fri, Oct 20, 2000, 12:43 PM SUPREME COURT APPOINTEES COULD THREATEN THE ENVIRONMENT Our next President -- either Al Gore or George W. Bush -- will almost certainly appoint several Justices to the Supreme Court. Governor George W. Bush has publicly stated, on "Meet the Press" (9/21/99), that current Justice Antonin Scalia is his model for a Supreme Court Justice. Leading legal scholars consider Justice Scalia the most anti-environmental Justice ever to sit on the Supreme Court. Even other conservative Justices, such as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, often disagree with Justice Scalia in environmental cases because of his failure to acknowledge scientific progress. Your vote for Al Gore could mean the difference between a Supreme Court that enforces strong environmental protection, or one that turns the clock back on our hard-fought gains. For example, in a case decided earlier this year, Justice Scalia expressed horror that a person who lives near a polluting plant would be able to hold the company accountable for violating the law. Justice Scalia argued that the Court was making it too easy for people to fight environmental threats in their own neighborhoods. Never mind that the factory in question had poisoned a river by dumping toxic mercury into the water 489 separate times. **************************************************************************** * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]