A district court granted in part and denied in part BLM's and FWS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit over an environmental group's petition to list a rare wildflower species in Nevada as endangered. The group first argued FWS unreasonably delayed responding to its request for emergency listing of Tiehm's ...

A district court vacated and remanded FWS' and the Forest Service's approval of the first phase of a proposed copper and silver mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. Tribal and environmental groups argued the agencies violated the ESA by failing to reinitiate consultation on the mine's impa...

A district court denied plaintiffs' motion to preliminarily enjoin the city of Chicago from issuing any permits or approvals in connection with the relocation of a recycling facility from the north side to the southeast side of the city. Plaintiffs argued the city's relocation of the facility was di...

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 district court denied the National Park Service's (NPS') motion to dismiss a challenge to its issuance of a policy memorandum concerning the use of electric-assisted bicycles (e-bikes) in national parks. Environmental groups argued the memorandum amended existing NPS regulations on bicycle use by ...

A district court granted summary judgment for a nonprofit group in a lawsuit seeking FOIA disclosure of records maintained by FWS regarding the import and export of wildlife. The group challenged the Service's redaction of certain information pursuant to a FOIA exemption for trade secrets and commer...

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...

A district court denied motions for summary judgment in a lawsuit seeking FOIA disclosure of records regarding an order issued by the Secretary of the Interior concerning the federal coal program. An environmental group argued that DOI failed to conduct an adequate search for responsive records, fai...