A district court denied a city's motion for a preliminary injunction in a RCRA lawsuit against two utility companies that owned a long-abandoned manufactured gas plant. The city alleged that the plant had contaminated soil in a nearby park and around a decommissioned water main, and sought to requir...

A district court granted residents' motion for summary judgment in a RCRA lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for inhumane and dangerous living conditions at a residential development located on a former landfill site previously operated by the city. The residents argued that the city had previo...

A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...

A district court dismissed a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department violated the Fourth Amendment by entering the Center without consent or warra...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of a constitutional challenge to California's 2015 Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Farming groups argued that the state's LCFS violated the Commerce Clause and the federal structure of the Constitution by regulating extraterritorially. But the...

A district court ruled unconstitutional an Iowa statute that criminalized undercover investigations of slaughterhouses and other animal facilities. Environmental groups argued that the state statute impermissibly restricted their free speech under the First Amendment because it was a content- and vi...

A district court temporarily stayed proceedings in which a pipeline developer sought access to a North Carolina farm for construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The landowner sought to stay the pipeline developer's attempt to acquire eminent domain rights to his property to allow pending challe...

A district court declared unconstitutional a California law that regulates the recording of conveyances of federal public lands in the state. DOJ argued that the state law, which grants the State Lands Commission the right of first refusal on transfers of federal public lands, runs afoul of the doct...

A district court ruled unconstitutional two Wyoming statutes that impose criminal and civil penalties for data collection on private land or public land accessed via private land. Environmental groups argued that the statutes violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The court found th...

The Sixth Circuit held that seepage from a coal-fired power plant that reached a nearby lake violated RCRA, but not the CWA. Environmental groups argued that the chemicals being stored in coal ash ponds contaminated the surrounding groundwater, which in turn contaminated a nearby lake, in violation ...