Sierra Club. Legal Defense Fund
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Includes agendas, minutes, reports, clippings, financial reports, dockets, new matter forms, notes, and subject files pertaining to SCLDF's Mineral King litigation.
From the description of Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records, 1890- [on-going]. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 86132594
Administrative History
The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (SCLDF) was established in San Francisco in 1971, with funding from the Ford Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation. Sierra Club Legal Committee members Phillip Berry, Donald Harris, Fred Fisher, and Michael McCloskey were instrumental in its creation. James Moorman was its first executive director. It is legally and financially separate from the Sierra Club, able to solicit tax-deductible donations and represent non-Sierra Club clients.
The young organization immediately became embroiled in a lawsuit, first filed by the Sierra Club in 1969, to prevent the establishment of a major ski resort at Mineral King, California. The decade-long campaign to halt Walt Disney Production's development plans resulted in the addition in 1978 of Mineral King to Sequoia National Park. The courts also granted environmental organizations legal standing to sue to protect public lands, despite their lack of financial interest in the outcome.
SCLDF has been involved in many other landmark environmental law cases throughout the United States. These include the ongoing campaign against the clearcutting of Admiralty Island, Alaska; and the protection of federal lands in the Western United States against strip mining, coal-fired power plants, and uranium mining. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund has worked extensively with local Sierra Club chapters and groups on local litigation. In this way, SCLDF's work complements the legislative and grassroots campaigns carried out by the Sierra Club.
For further information on the history of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, consult Tom Turner's Wild by Law: The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the Places It Has Saved (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990).
From the guide to the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records, (The Bancroft Library)
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Subjects:
- Conservation of natural resources
Occupations:
Places:
- United States (as recorded)
- Mineral King Valley (Calif.) (as recorded)
