In the mid-1970s, a group of politically conservative lawyers formed a network of nonprofit, public-interest law firms and began to challenge liberal government in the courts. These attorneys tried to defend property rights, commercial use of public lands, federalism, and economic freedom by litigating cases in law. Then, during the 1980s, they worked on similar legal and policy issues within the administration of President Ronald Reagan. This book explains why conservatives expended so much political and financial capital battling the regulatory state, especially on questions of environmental protection and preservation. It explains the importance of the American West to the development of modern US conservatism. And it explains how some of the key accomplishments of the civil rights movement were reinterpreted and appropriated by the libertarian right.