Standing in the Desert: Prudential Standing in Wilderness Society v. Kane County

Abstract

Kane County, Utah stripped federal land in southern Utah of signs prohibiting off-road vehicles. Despite pleas from The Wilderness Society (TWS), a conservation organization, the county passed an ordinance legalizing its actions. TWS filed suit, claiming the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibited the county from interfering with federally authorized signs. On January 11, 2011, an en banc opinion of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied prudential standing to TWS. The court characterized the case as a property dispute, finding that TWS was impermissibly asserting the rights of the federal government. This Comment explores how the court’s analysis neglected the individual harms asserted by TWS’s members and applied the rules of prudential standing without deference to the separation of powers concept from which they arose.