As a lawyer in private practice, Mr. Roberts has also represented large corporate interests opposing environmental controls. He submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the National Mining Association in the recent case Bragg v. West Virginia Coal Association. In this case, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that had stopped the practice of "mountaintop removal" in the state of West Virginia. Citizens of West Virginia who were adversely affected by the practice had sued the state, claiming damage to both their homes and the surrounding area generally. [NOTE: Rivers that were coming back to life have become clogged with toxic sludge, groundwater quality has been adversely affected, and environmental-genus illnesses in these areas are now on the increase.] Three Republican appointees -- Judges Niemeyer, Luttig, and Williams -- held that West Virginia's issuance of permits to mining companies to extract coal by blasting the tops off of mountains and depositing the debris in nearby valleys and streams did not violate the 1977 Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. [NOTE: This would have been an absolutely laughable decision if the human and environmental results of it had not been so tragic.] This decision was greeted with great dismay by environmental groups. In another case, Roberts represented one of several intervenors in a case challenging the EPA's promulgation of rules to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions