This course explores the role of the United States Supreme Court in the shaping of the nation's environmental and natural resources laws, with special emphasis on both advocacy before the Court and the Court’s internal decision making processes. The course is designed to introduce students to the full scope and meaning of environmental law, the related challenges of environmental lawmaking (and advocacy) and to the workings of the Supreme Court. After the introductory class session, we will examine each week some of the most significant environmental cases decided by the Supreme Court, but by going far beyond just the Court’s final opinion. We will seek to better understand environmental law and the Court, by examining the briefs and oral argument in the case and, when available, the internal decision-making documents of the Justices, including bench memos, conference votes, and draft opinions. We may also visit with counsel of record in some of the cases and discuss with them their litigation strategies. For the purposes of this seminar, “environmental law” will embrace more than just the classic pollution controls laws, such as the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act. It will extend to natural resources law, as well as to cross-cutting legal issues pertaining to federalism, separation of powers, and private property rights that play a persistent role in environmental lawmaking and its surrounding legal controversies.