A district court granted an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to FWS' withdrawal of a rule proposed in 2015 to list the Lower Colorado River (LCR) Basin roundtail chub as a threatened species. The group argued that FWS' withdrawal of the rule rested entirely on the Ser...
A magistrate judge dismissed a lawsuit concerning ownership of a grazing allotment in the Apache National Forest. Ranchers argued the allotment was privately owned and thus relieved them of any obligation to obtain a cattle grazing permit from the Forest Service or to comply with the permit's requir...
A district court denied an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to NMFS' approval of an amendment to a fishery management plan (FMP) for an Atlantic herring fishery. The group argued NMFS violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) by failing to designate river herring, which...
A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to incidental take regulations promulgated by NMFS that authorized certain oil and gas exploration and production activities in Cook Inlet. The groups argued that NMFS violated the Ma...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part, denied in part, and dismissed in part a petition to review FERC's approval of changes to dam operations in northwest Indiana after determining that the hydroelectric dam partially caused mussel deaths, as well as FWS' biological opinion (BiOp) upon which the Commiss...
The Fifth Circuit denied a petition to review FWS' issuance of a biological opinion (BiOp) and incidental take statement (ITS) authorizing the harm or harassment of endangered ocelot or jaguarundi in connection with construction and operation of a liquefied natural gas pipeline in South Texas. Envir...
A district court granted fishermen's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to an NMFS rule that would close their swordfish fishery if they accidentally killed or injured too many marine mammals or turtles, and vacated the rule. The fishermen argued the rule conflicted with three national stand...
A district court denied an Apache group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the exchange of sacred land in Tonto National Forest to two foreign mining companies for mineral exploration. The group argued the land was held in trust by the U.S. government for the Western Apaches through an 1852 treaty, an...
A district court denied environmental groups' motions to enjoin an oil company from undertaking construction this winter on an oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. One group argued BLM violated the ESA by inappropriately relying on uncertain Marine Mammal Protection Act miti...