The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a district court decision dismissing a Philippine island's action claiming that an American company polluted its waters. According to the complaint, Placer Dome severely polluted the lands and waters of Marinduque for some 30 years, caused two cataclysmic envi...

The court reverses the dismissal of the Louisiana Fish & Game Preserve Commission's takings claim against the United States in a case involving a conflict between the state commission's duty to maintain the Northwest Fish and Game Preserve and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') respo...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that two flow-control ordinances requiring delivery of local solid waste to a publicly owned processing facility do not discriminate against interstate commerce in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The ordinances at issue treat in-state private business interests exactl...

The court reverses and remands a jury verdict awarding damages to a logging company that alleged that the state caused a temporary taking by refusing to permit logging on a parcel of the company's property on which a pair of northern spotted owls were nesting. The court first holds that because of t...

The court holds that a town's decision to rezone a landowner's property from residential to solely recreational use did not constitute a regulatory taking under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The court first rejects the landowner's contention that the town must demonst...

The court holds that the doctrine of res judicata does not bar nuclear utilities' claims that they were improperly charged by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for decontamination and decommissioning costs in its contracts for enriched uranium during the time period after the Energy Policy Act ena...

The court dismisses as unripe a developer's civil rights action against a city, a state environmental protection agency, agency employees, and a citizen group that allegedly opposed the developer's construction of a residential subdivision within the city's watershed. The court first holds that the ...

The court holds that a Native American council and an environmental group lack standing under the Federal Power Act (FPA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to challenge a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order authorizing a Canadian power generator to sell power in the Unit...

The court grants a limestone quarry owner's motion to amend its takings complaint against the United States in order to reflect additional damages incurred as a result of the taking. The United States, which deposited hazardous waste at the quarry pursuant to a Superfund removal action, conceded lia...

The court holds that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar the U.S. third-party claim against the state of Alaska for equitable apportionment of damages alleged in a Federal Tort Claims Act action brought by a Native American tribe against the United States for damages caused by leaking fuel. The Unit...