Neil Thomas Proto

Neil Thomas Proto (born September 4, 1945) is an American lawyer, teacher, lecturer, and author. He chaired Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP) as a law student. He served in the Appellate Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the U.S. Department of Justice. During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, he served as general counsel to the President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee. Proto was appointed a visiting lecturer at Yale University in 1988 and 1989. Since 1990, while in private practice in Washington, DC, he has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. In 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London. In 2016, his one-person play, The Reckoning, Pecora for the Public, premiered in Seattle.

Early life and education

Proto was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Matthew and Celeste Proto. Both parents were active in New Haven's civic and political life. His mother emigrated from Italy in 1916. He attended New Haven's public schools. Proto's sister, Diana (1947—), was a Milken National Educator. His brother, Richard Proto, (1940–2008), was director of research at the U.S. National Security Agency. In 2009, a conference center was named in his honor on the NSA campus in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Proto graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 1967, where he served as student body president and received the university's outstanding leadership award. He was among the early re–ients of college funding from the New Haven Scholarship Fund. He received his Master of Arts degree in international affairs from the George Washington University (GWU) in 1969. From April to June 6, 1968, he served as chair of Young Citizens for Kennedy in Connecticut; then he worked with others to collect signatures for hand gun control. He graduated, with honors, from GWU's law school in 1972. While there, he organized and chaired Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP). His first book, To a High Court,Neil Thomas Proto, To a High Court: The Tumult and Choices That Led to United States of America v. Scrap (2006, 2013) captured the activist imperative and rough corporate culture that surrounded and tempered him and led to United States of America v. SCRAP, 412 US 669 (1973).SCRAP v. U.S., 346 F. Supp. 189 (D.D.C. 1972); stay denied, 93 S. Ct. 1 (1972, Burger, C.J.); U.S. v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669 (1973). It was the first Supreme Court case to deal with the National Environmental Policy Act and "standing to sue" under the Constitution. The decision was an acknowledged and enduring bane to Justice Antonin Scalia as well as Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.Linda Greenhouse, "For the Chief Justice, a Dissent and a Line in the Sand," ("[A]ccording to Chief Justice Roberts, SCRAP is back.") New York Times, April 8, 2007 On September 23, 2023, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the decision, Proto gave a presentation at GWU about United States of America v. SCRAP.

Proto has donated various documents, photographs, and memorabilia from the 1968–1972 era to George Washington University's Gelman Library. He has also made several donations to Southern Connecticut State University, including funding for the university's prelaw society, a scholarship for aspiring law students, an archive to house the papers of four New Haven mayors.

Public service, private practice, teaching, and civic life

While at the Justice Department (Appellate Section, Environment and Natural Resources Division), Proto litigated cases concerning public lands, environment, and Native Americans. He received the Department's Special Commendation Award for Outstanding Service and the Division's Award for Meritorious Service.The most contentious litigation involved multiple controversies to preserve the boundaries of various Sioux Reservations, especially cases against the State of South Dakota and its surrogates. Representative cases included the following: U. S. and Standing Rock Tribe (Amicus Curiae) v. Long Elk and Bird Horse, 565 F.2d 1032 (8th Cir. 1977) rehearing en banc den.; diminishment of the Standing Rock Reservation (South Dakota) (briefing and oral argument); Coupland v. Morton, Secretary, 526 F.2d 588 (4th Cir. 1975) NEPA, Back Bay Wildlife Refuge (Virginia) (briefing and oral argument); National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) v. Department of State, den. of motion for injunction pending appeal (D.C. Cir. 1978) NEPA opium poppy and marijuana eradication program in Mexico (brief only, no oral argument held); Brown, Governor v. U.S.E.P.A. (Brown I), 521 F.2d 827 (9th Cir. 1975) and (Brown II, 566 2d 665 (9th Cir. 1978) 10th Amendment, Commerce Clause, Constitutionality of Clean Air Act; transportation controls (briefing and oral argument); U.S.E.P.A. v. Brown, 431 U.S. 99 (1977) judgment vacated as moot (drafted Pet. for Cert. and brief for Solicitor General); North Dakota v. Andrus, Secretary of Interior, interlocutory appeal under 1292(b), aff'd Interior position (8th Cir. 1978); injunction denied by Justice Blackmun (1978) Article II, Section 2 (President's authority); dam project (North Dakota) (brief only); Geminschaft Zum Schutz Des Berlinger Baumbestandes, E.V. v. George Marienthal, American Commandant, Berlin, denial of preliminary injunction (D.D.C. Cir. 1978) Application of NEPA to military housing in Berlin (assisted in brief preparation); U.S. and Cheyenne River Tribe (Amicus Curiae) v. Glen Dupris, Juvenile, 453 F. Supp. 1171 (D.S.D., 1978); 612 F.2d 319 (8th Cir. 1979) diminishment of Cheyenne River Reservation (South Dakota) (testimony preparation, briefs only); U.S. v. New Mexico, 536 F.2d 1324 (10th Cir. 1976) supported Federal land grant for Mine Workers Hospital (New Mexico) (briefing and oral argument); Diamond Ring Ranch, Inc. v. Morton, Secretary of Interior, 531 F.2d 1397, rehearing denied (10th Cir. 1976) Unauthorized use of pesticides on the public lands (Wyoming) (briefing and oral argument); Sierra Club v. Morton, Secretary, 510 F.2d 813 (5th Cir. 1975) oil and gas leasing on outer-continental shelf (Mississippi-Florida) (briefing and oral argument); Rosebud Sioux Tribe and United States (Amicus Curiae) v. Kneip, Governor, 521 F.2d 87 (8th Cir. 1975) Native Americans; General Allotment policy; diminishment of Rosebud Reservation (South Dakota) (briefing and oral argument). Rosebud Sioux Tribe and United States (Amicus Curiae)v. Kneip, Governor, 430 U.S. 584 (1977) (drafted brief for Solicitor General); U.S. ex rel Cook and United States (Amicus Curiae) v. Parkinson, 525 F.2d 120 (8th Cir. 1975) diminishment of Pine Ridge Reservation (South Dakota) (briefing and oral argument);Utah P. and L. v. Morton, Secretary, 504 F.2d 728 (9th Cir. 1974) "Wheeling" of electric power over public lands by private utility; (briefing and oral argument);Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. Kerr-McKee Corporation, 492 F.2d 878 (10th Cir. 1974) (United States Amicus Curiae) natural gas and mining on public land (New Mexico) (briefing and oral argument); Stanley Johnson v. Lower Elwha Reservation (Washington), 484 F.2d 200 (9th Cir. 1973) Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (briefing and oral argument);U.S. v. U.S. Steel, cert. den., 414 U.S. 909 (1973) Criminal prosecution of U.S. Steel for violating Rivers and Harbors Act (drafted brief in opp. for Solicitor General). In 1979, Proto returned to New Haven. In January 1980, he served as co-chair of the first mayoral inauguration held at Yale University. The inauguration, held in Woolsey Hall, included the president of Yale, A. Bartlett Giamatti, and Connecticut governor Ella T. Grasso. Proto wrote about the event in his book about Giamatti, Fearless: A. Bartlett Giamatti and the Battle for Fairness in America.Neil T. Proto, Fearless: A Bartlett Giamatti and the Battle for Fairness in America (Albany: SUNY Press, 2020). He has also written articles and a podcast about Giamatti's decision as commissioner of Major League Baseball to banish Pete Rose.Neil T. Proto, "Preservation of Baseball Tradition Is at Stake in Rose Debate," New Haven Register, July 6, 1989Neil T. Proto, "Bart Giamatti: The Quest for Fairness in Cooperstown," Across the Margin, May 14, 2020. Proto was elected to the board of directors of the Long Wharf Theater, and served on the board of directors of the Shubert Theatre (New Haven). In 1981, Proto received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Southern Connecticut State University. He had given the Commencement Address in 1976.

In 1981, Proto returned to Washington, D.C., where he served as general counsel to President Jimmy Carter's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee (NSOC).Following the accident at Three Mile Island, President Carter appointed a commission chaired by Dartmouth President John G. Kemeny. NSOC's purpose was to examine nuclear power plant safety, make recommendations, and oversee implementation of the Kemeny Commission recommendations. Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt, who had been a member of the Kemeny Commission, chaired NSOC. Proto attended the International Atomic Energy Commission Conference in Stockholm; led research efforts in emergency planning and efforts on the effect of conditioning bank lending and insurance practices on upgraded safety measures; and, with others, critiqued various utility emergency planning exercises and NRC decisions. Proto also has written about the corporate and government failure to ensure nuclear safety.

From 1983 to 1989, Proto entered private practice in New Haven. He represented the city and state in various constitutional and environmental litigation in Washington, D.C.; Connecticut; and New York.Representative cases during this period included Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation v. I. C. C. and City of New Haven (Intervenor), 841 F.2d 479 (2nd Cir. 1988) Rails to Trails Act, Farmington Canal (Connecticut) (briefing and oral argument); Mall Properties, Inc. v. Marsh, Department of Army and City of New Haven (Intervenor), 672 F. Supp. 561 (D. Mass. 1987); aff'd 841 F.2d 440 (1st Cir. 1988) NEPA, Clean Water Act, wetlands, shopping mall (Connecticut) (briefing and oral argument); New Haven et al. (led by National League of Cities) v. U.S., 634 F. Supp 1449 (D.D.C. 1986), aff'd 809 F.2d 900 (D.C. Cir. 1986) President withholding funds for low and moderate income housing (briefing and oral argument, made primarily by League of Cities); Pacific Gas and Electric v. California, 461 U.S. 190 (1983) state regulation of nuclear power; Special Assistant Attorney General, Connecticut, (amicus curiae) (brief only). Proto was appointed a visiting lecturer at Yale College in 1988 and 1989, where he taught the history and law of nuclear power.