A New York court struck down a city's local ordinance that placed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing within its borders. The city argued that it issued the ordinance under its local police powers and that it was therefore not required to refer the law to the county planning board prior to...

A Wisconsin appellate court reversed in part a lower court judgment declaring that an excess umbrella policy issued to an electronics company provided coverage for the company's liability for PCB contamination of the Lower Fox River in Wisconsin. The lower court correctly chose to apply Wisconsin, r...

A California appellate court reversed in part a lower court decision granting a petition to vacate an irrigation district's approval of an agreement to provide water to a casino on tribal land. In approving the agreement, the irrigation district determined that the agreement was not subject to certa...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group attorney fees after it successfully challenged BLM's post-fire grazing decisions and authorizations in the Jarbridge Resource Area in Idaho. In 2004, an environmental group filed suit against BLM challenging its renewal...

A district court dismissed a quarry operator's lawsuit against the state environmental agency for violating its constitutional rights when it denied the operator's application to use certain fill material at a reclamation site. The state denied the application because the fill to be used at the site...

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed a lower court decision dismissing the state environmental agency's contribution action against a dry cleaner under the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act to recover costs incurred in investigating and remediating PCE-contaminated groundwater. The a...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to intervene in a takings suit filed by property owners claiming that the government's releases of water from a dam in central California unlawfully impaired their property rights in the water and inundated t...

The Fifth Circuit withdrew its prior ruling and held that the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) shields the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from liability for flood damage stemming from Hurricane Katrina. Plaintiffs argued that the Corps should be held liable for th...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an Eskimo village's nuisance claim against multiple oil, energy, and utility companies for their alleged contribution to climate change. The village claimed that the companies are responsible for a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas...

A district court held that 15 community members of Corpus Christi, Texas, are victims under the Crime Victims Rights Act (CVRA) for environmental crimes committed by a petroleum refining company. The company was convicted of two counts of criminally violating the CAA at its refinery. The court previ...