Researchers at the University of Alabama have published an article in the American Chemical Society’s ES&T Water journal, An Improved 21st Century Judicial System with Environmental Science Expertise is Needed for Resolving Interstate Water Conflicts, where they show that U.S. Supreme Court Justices lack the scientific expertise necessary to objectively resolve complex interstate groundwater conflicts. Groundwater expert Professor T. Prabhakar Clement and his PhD student Nimisha Wasankar at the College of Engineering teamed up with water law expert Professor Heather Elliott at the School of Law to analyze the Mississippi (MS) v. Tennessee (TN) groundwater lawsuit.
Groundwater conflicts between neighboring states may become more common in the future due to rapid population growth and climate change. According to the U.S. Constitution, lawsuits between states must be heard only by the Supreme Court, even if the Justices lack the required scientific expertise. The University of Alabama team reviewed the oral argument from the MS v. TN lawsuit and identified several egregious misconceptions about groundwater transport processes held by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Barrett and Breyer. The study suggests that the cause of these errors could be the lack of expertise required to understand the highly technical scientific material presented by groundwater experts. Therefore, the authors emphasize the need for STEM-trained judges to resolve complex interstate water disputes. They also recommend that U.S. law schools make concerted efforts to recruit and train lawyers with STEM backgrounds. Furthermore, the study suggests innovative methods for communicating complex groundwater concepts to novices, which might help minimize misconceptions in future Supreme Court lawsuits.
