Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 - History

History

See also: Timeline of environmental events

Louis Marshall had a key influence as an intervenor on a landmark case before the Supreme Court underscoring the right and responsibility of the Federal government for environmental protection and conservation. In a friend of the court brief in Missouri v. Holland on behalf of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Marshall successfully persuaded the Court to uphold the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, between the United States and Canada. As characterized by Adler, Marshall argued that "the United States did have the power to create such legislation; that Congress was well within its rights; and that the Act was constitutional"; and, further, "If Congress possessed plenary powers to legislate for the protection of the public domain, then it had to take into account all possibility for such protection", including protection of migratory birds, "these natural guardians" against "hostile insects, which, if not held in check ... would result in the inevitable destruction" of "both prairie and forest lands". According to Handlin, Marshall's intervention "was a major factor in the decision."

Read more about this topic:  Migratory Bird Treaty Act Of 1918

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
    —Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    “As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
    —Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    “Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
    —Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)