The court holds that a settlement agreement between a state solid waste authority and a private waste disposal company does not violate the Sherman Act or the federal Commerce Clause. The agreement requires both the state authority and the company to respect one another's municipal contracts by reje...

The court holds that an environmental group is not entitled to a preliminary injunction suspending a proposed retail development's construction permit and ordering the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) addressing the development's impact on flooding. The...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing commercial fishermen's takings claim against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for prohibiting commercial fishing on waters surrounding the Palmyra National Wildlife Refuge. The fishermen argued they were entitled to compensation...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal of a property owner's claim for just compensation after the FWS required mitigation in connection with its sale of property to the U.S. Navy. A property owner sought to sell some of its land to the U.S. Navy. But because the FWS deemed the site ...

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 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...