ABSTRACT
Enshrined by the principle of the separation of powers, the judiciary is empowered by the Constitution to exercise judicial review and determine how Congress intends for statutes to apply to disputes. Having assessed the congressional statute and the NPS’s interpretation of it in the previous chapter, the questions that follow address how to evaluate the judiciary’s role in the resolution of conflicts and how different national park management would be today without courts.1 This chapter approaches these questions by reviewing how the judiciary interprets congressional statutes, including the Organic Act and other environmental statutes, how it interplays with Congress, agencies and other interest groups, and how conflicts in public land management are perceived and resolved in the judicial sphere.
