Senator Leahy raised the Magnesium Elektron case, a case that helped prompt several environmentalist groups to oppose Judge Alito’s confirmation. In Magnesium Elektron Judge Alito joined a majority opinion holding that environmental activist plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that they had standing to file a citizen suit against a company for violating the Clean Water Act because they did not allege, and could not show, any environmental impacts resulting from the violations. While one judge dissented from the holding, the panel was unanimous on the relevant legal standard. All three judges agreed that the environmental plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that they had standing. The dissenter merely argued that the case should be remanded to give the plaintiffs another chance to make the relevant showing. It’s also important that, contrary to many commentators, Magnesium Elektron was not directly overturned by the Supreme Court’s subsequent decision in Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw. Indeed, Magnesium Elektron is still applied within the Third Circuit. While the Laidlaw opinion modified Magnesium Elektron insofar as it allows citizen suits to go forward even absent any evidence of environmental harm from a Clean Water Act violation, the plaintiffs in Magnesium Elektron would still have difficulty establishing standing under Laidlaw because they failed to allege that they had a significant connection to the waters allegedly polluted by the defendant corporation.