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4 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol'y 33 (2000)
Denying Access to Legal Representation: The Attack on the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic

handle is hein.journals/wajlp4 and id is 37 raw text is: Denying Access to Legal Representation: The Attack on the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic Robert R. Kuehn* I. THE SHINTECH PROPOSAL AND AN APPEAL FOR FREE LEGAL A SSISTANCE ................................................................................ 38 A. Enough is Enough ......................................................... 38 B. The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic Provides Legal Assistance ........................................................................ 47 II. A BACKLASH AGAINST ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ...... 51 A. Governor Foster's Hostility Toward and Threats Against Tulane ............................................................................... 51 B. Industry: Access to Justice That's Bad for Business is Bad for Louisiana ............................................................. 61 C. The Legal Profession: Access to Justice Yields to Attorney Self-Interest ..................................................... 69 D. The Louisiana Supreme Court: A Certain Kind ofAccess and Only for Certain People .......................................... 75 1. The Court's Changing Politics .................................... 75 2. Investigating the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic ...... 77 3. The Original June 1998 Restrictions ........................... 81 4. The Revised March 1999 Restrictions ....................... 91 III. THE HARM FROM DENYING ACCESS TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION ...................................................................... 96 IV. DETERRING DENIALS OF ACCESS TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION.. 102 * Visiting Professor of Law, University of Utah College of Law. The following Article is based on a presentation by Professor Kuehn in the Public Interest Law Speaker Series at Washington University School of Law on November 17, 1999. From 1989 to 1999, Professor Kuehn was the director of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic and is one of the plaintiffs in the federal court challenge to the Louisiana Supreme Court's new restrictions on law school clinics. The author would like to thank Washington University School of Law students L.J. Cox, Erica Freeman, and Justin Pitt, and University of Michigan Law School students Stephen Crowley, Brian Gruber, and Patrick Raulerson, for their research assistance, Washington University School of Law and the University of Michigan Law School for supporting the research on which this article is based, and Kirsten Engle, Oliver Houck, Peter Joy, Rena Steinzor and Elizabeth Teel for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.