The Snail Darter and the Dam: How Pork-Barrel Politics Endangered a Little Fish and Killed a River

(Yale University Press) Plater wrote this book in an attempt to clarify controversy surrounding a Supreme Court case he won with students from the University of Tennessee thirty years ago trying to prevent a dam from being built. The dam was built, but Plater argues, contrary to accusations, that it was not staunch environmentalists but family farmers who were fighting against the dam. Plater is a Boston College Law School professor and former lead counsel in the Tennessee Valley Authority Tellico Dam Case.