Pacific Legal Foundation and the Catholic University Law Review seek papers for a symposium on “Searching for Constitutional Limits on Environmental & Natural Resources Law,” to be held in spring 2026 at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. The full call for papers is available here.

We seek papers that explore the limits of Congress’s regulatory authority over environmental and natural resources policy. We would like papers that address this topic from numerous perspectives, including:

1. Does the Commerce Clause limit the application of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, or any other environmental statute? As an empirical matter, how many federal environmental regimes reach non-commercial and intrastate activity?
2. Rulings in United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison reintroduced some constraints on the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce. Does the Court’s retrenchment in Gonzales v. Raich condition Lopez and Morrison with respect to environmental law?
3. How much work, if any, can the Necessary and Proper Clause perform in extending Congress’s regulatory reach under the Commerce Clause in environmental law?
4. What is the potential for the constitutional alternatives to the so-called dormant Commerce Clause, such as the Privileges & Immunities Clause or the Import-Export Clause?
5. How should courts interpret Article IV as it relates to environmental policies? What is the relationship between the Commerce Clause and Article IV? How should constitutional structure factor into any reading of Article IV? Does the nondelegation doctrine apply to Article IV?
6. Does the public trust doctrine apply to federal lands, and to the extent it does how should it guide federal land management practices vis-à-vis conservation vs. natural resource extraction?
7. What role does the Tenth Amendment play in environmental and natural resources law?  Does the Ninth Amendment have a role to play?
8. To what extent is the constitutionality of ‘cooperative federalism’ regimes, such as those established by the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, an improper assignment of federal permitting authority to state actors? Consideration of this prompt may address the division of responsibility between federal and state governments in these environmental regulatory frameworks, and how that division may raise questions regarding the Supremacy Clause, the separation of powers, and the potential for inconsistent enforcement of federal standards. How should courts balance the need for state flexibility and local expertise with the constitutional requirement for a uniform application of federal laws?
9. Where an agency’s authority under the Commerce Clause is questionable, to what extent may the government justify—or not—environmental regimes under other constitutional authorities, such as the Taxing and Spending Clause?

This list is non-exclusive.

Accepted papers will be presented at a symposium in spring 2026 and published in an issue of the Catholic University Law Review. In addition, PLF offers authors of accepted papers a substantial honorarium.

Interested parties should submit a brief research proposal that describes your thesis and how your research will contribute to the legal issues described above.

Proposals should be submitted by August 1 to Will Yeatman at wyeatman@pacificlegal.org. Early proposal submission is encouraged, as proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and approvals will allow authors to begin work early. Full details are available here.