The Future of Environmental Law in the Aftermath of Loper Bright (Presented by the Federal Bar Association Federal Career Service Division)

Professor Sanne Knudsen, Stimson Bullitt Endowed Professor of Environmental Law | University of Washington School of Law

Sanne Knudsen is the Stimson Bullitt Endowed Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Washington in Seattle. She received a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan, where she graduated Order of the Coif and was a member of the Michigan Law Review. She is a former law clerk for the Honorable Ronald M. Gould on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2018 Professor was invited to become a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, where she has since served on the Board of Regents.

After practicing law at private law firms in Chicago and Minneapolis, Professor Knudsen joined the University of Washington School of Law in 2011. She teaches Environmental Law, Administrative Law, and Civil Procedure. She has won numerous awards for her teaching and scholarship.

Professor Knudsen’s scholarship focuses on both environmental and administrative law. Her co-authored work on the history of Seminole Rock deference was cited by the United States Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie. Most recently, Professor Knudsen has published a series of articles examining the relationship between administrative law and environmental law. In The Exoskeleton of Environmental Law, published in 2023 in the Utah Law review, she argues that environmental law embodies a unique set of prescriptive choices centered on a commitment to self-restraint for the purposes of self-preservation. In a companion article entitled Sidestepping Substance, published in 2024 in the Administrative Law Review, she examines how administrative law can be operationalized to undermine the success of environmental law. In a shorter essay entitled Reclaiming Control, published in the Environmental Law Forum, Knudsen suggests that Congress would be wise to recalibrate the balance of power between administrative and environmental law through an APA-type legislation specific to the challenges of environmental law. She also has an article forthcoming in the Ohio State Law Journal on Predicting (and Protecting) the Future of Environmental Law After Loper Bright.

I. Primer on pre-Loper Bright Deference Frameworks | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

II. Pre-Loper Bright Critique of Chevron | 2:10pm – 2:20pm

III. The Loper Bright Decision Itself | 2:20pm – 2:35pm

IV. Application of Loper Bright in the Lowers Courts | 2:35pm – 2:45pm

V. Particular Considerations for Environmental Law | 2:45pm – 2:55pm

VI. Q&A | 2:55pm – 3:00pm