The Fifth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a discrimination challenge brought against St. James Parish in Louisiana. Two faith- and community-based groups argued the Parish had discriminated against them by directing hazardous industrial facility development toward majority-Black dis...

A district court granted the state of Louisiana's request to block EPA and DOJ from imposing disparate impact mandates under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The state argued the agencies were attempting to create disparate impact mandates under Title VI by regulation without having authority to do...

A district court dismissed a civil rights challenge to St. James Parish's adoption of a land use plan in 2014. Nonprofit and religious groups argued their members were residents of the Parish descended from formerly enslaved people whose civil liberties, property rights, and religious rights were vi...

The Fourth Circuit vacated the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board's approval of a permit for construction of a compressor station associated with a natural gas pipeline in an historically African-American community. Environmental groups argued that the Board erred in failing to make any findings r...

A district court held that a low-income community association may go forward with its claim against EPA for failing to issue preliminary findings and recommendations for voluntary compliance in response to a Title VI complaint concerning the siting, permitting, expansion, and operation of toxic ...

The court holds that despite the U.S. Supreme Court holding in Alexander v. Sandoval, 121 S. Ct. 1511 (2001), that there is no private right-of-action to enforce disparate impact regulations promulgated under Civil Rights Act Title VI, §602, a community group may enforce the U.S. Environmental Prot...

The court holds several corporations liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for response costs associated with a New York landfill. The court first holds that by introducing competent proof that three of the defendant target corporations dispo...

The court holds that Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 cost recovery actions are not available to potentially responsible parties (PRPs) and that divisibility of harm is not a defense to §113 contribution claims. The court first holds that CERCLA d...

The court holds that summary judgment cannot be granted on the issue of corporate officers' Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) liability, but a successor corporation may be held liable under CERCLA. After a U.S. Virgin Islands clothing manufacturer dissol...

The court denies a landowner's motion for partial summary judgment on claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (PaHSCA) against a wire rope manufacturer that previously owned a portion of the cont...