A district court granted in part and denied in part NMFS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit seeking an expansion of the Service's 2008 Vessel Speed Rule to protect North Atlantic right whales. Conservation groups argued NMFS had unreasonably delayed its response to the groups' 2012 and 2020 petitions to e...

The Court of Federal Claims entered judgment for the U.S. government in a takings challenge against FWS for rerouting spring waters that had previously flowed through church property into a restoration channel in an effort to save a native fish species. The church argued the berm FWS installed upstr...

A district court granted researchers' and primate importers' motions to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit group seeking FOIA disclosure of FWS records regarding the import and export of wildlife. The group challenged the Service's redaction of certain information pursuant to a FOIA exemp...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by Catholic nuns seeking monetary damages for property taken by the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline. The nuns argued that construction and operation of the pipeline through land they owned would violate their free exercise of religion protected by t...

A district court granted summary judgment for an environmental group in a challenge to FWS' decision not to list the Joshua tree as threatened under the ESA. The group challenged the Service's findings that Joshua trees were not threatened under either the five threat factors or throughout a signifi...

A district court granted the state of Louisiana's motion for preliminary injunction to delay the effective date of NMFS' 2019 rule requiring turtle excluder devices on certain skimmer trawl vessels operating in inshore waters. The state argued the effective date was arbitrary and capricious because ...

A district court granted interim injunctive relief for environmental groups in a lawsuit concerning the Army Corps of Engineers' operation of dams in the Willamette River Basin. The groups sought injunctive relief to remedy the Corps' substantive and procedural ESA violations previously found by the...

A district court denied a water district's motion to intervene in an ESA lawsuit seeking protections for longfin smelt. The water district argued it had standing to intervene because its alleged injury—a reduction in water allocation—was economic, its injury was traceable to plaintiff's claims s...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit concerning guidance issued by EPA recommending a statistical method for assessing water toxicity. Trade groups argued the Agency violated the APA and the CWA in issuing the guidance. A district court found that the guidance was not final agency actio...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part district court rulings in a collection of lawsuits concerning oil companies' decades of drilling activities along the Louisiana coast. Six Louisiana parishes filed suit in state court, arguing the companies violated the Louisiana State and Loca...