A Discussion of Jurisdiction Stripping and the Mountain Valley Pipeline

A Federalist Society Forum on "Jurisdiction Stripping: Fact & Fiction Flowing Through the Mountain Valley Pipeline Case"

Last week I participated in a Federalist Society teleforum on the legal issues raised by Congress' decision to limit judicial review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in response to aggressive (and initially successful) litigation by environmentalist groups. As I noted here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit initially resisted Congress' decision to strip its jurisdiction, but ultimately acquiesced (after Supreme Court intervention).

In the teleforum, I joined Professor Daniel Farber, Professor Alan Trammell, Rachel Jankowski of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers II, who served as moderator.

The forum can be heard (or viewed) here:

Comments

[The Margrave of Azilia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2XdmyBtCRQ

Oops, wrong kind of stripping.

But the late Earl Warren was really working it.

[Commenter_XY]

Are there any areas of the law where Congress may not strip the authority of Article 3 courts.

The 4th Circuit evidently thought so. Were they wrong?

[MatthewSlyfield]

"Are there any areas of the law where Congress may not strip the authority of Article 3 courts."

Yes, they can't strip the Supreme Court of their original jurisdiction as defined by the constitution. Beyond that, Congress has the explicit power to define the jurisdiction of the lower courts.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

It seems the Supreme Court likes stripping *itself* of original jurisdiction in some cases.