Fifth Circuit Weighs Standing, Harm in ‘Cancer Alley’ Appeal

Environmental and health advocates in Louisiana met St. James Parish in oral arguments on Monday in what Judge Carl E. Stewart called a “hefty” case challenging a lower court decision to dismiss chunks of an environmental justice lawsuit.

The three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit probed attorneys on issues of standing, and whether officials of St. James Parish, La., executed yearslong discriminatory land use policies in majority Black districts.

Advocates argue that St. James Parish’s industry-friendly zoning practices and a 2014 land use plan has inundated nearby communities with pollution from a corridor of ...