 Michael McCloskey had just ousted David Brower as executive director of the Sierra Club and, emboldened by the Second Circuit's decision in "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission", he sought a more direct, and litigious, approach to environmentalism by setting up the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, later renamed Earthjustice.The Sierra Club then sued the United States Secretary of the Interior in San Francisco federal court to block development of Disney's famous ski resort.Asserting itself as private attorney general, the Sierra Club argued that Disney's resort would cause “irreparable harm to the public interest”.