A district court granted in part and denied in part an animal sanctuary's motion to dismiss an ESA citizen suit brought by an animal rights group. The group alleged the sanctuary violated the ESA by taking endangered or threatened species, unlawfully possessing ESA-protected animals, and unlawfully ...

A district court vacated in part the Forest Service's 2017 record of decision (ROD) that closed approximately 196,000 acres of recommended wilderness areas in Clearwater National Forest to motorized vehicles and eliminated motorized use on 38 miles of existing trails. An environmental group had chal...

A district court ordered a pipeline company and Native American tribe to submit a joint proposal on how to prevent a "catastrophic rupture" of a crude oil and natural gas pipeline running through the tribe's reservation in northern Wisconsin. The tribe initially brought public nuisance and trespass ...

The D.C. Circuit granted environmental groups' motion for writ of mandamus to require EPA to complete its effects determination for the registered pesticide cyantraniliproles. The groups argued EPA was eight years past its deadline under the ESA to complete the effects determination, that it had fai...

A district court granted in part and denied in part conservation groups' motion for an order on remedy after it invalidated NMFS' 2021 biological opinion (BiOp) and final rule as related to the U.S. lobster fishery. The parties agreed the rule should be remanded without vacatur to NMFS along with an...

A district court granted DOD's motion to dismiss a challenge to its decision to halt fence construction along the U.S.-Mexico border in response to President Biden's proclamation declaring an end to the national border emergency. A corporation that owns land adjacent to the fence argued that DOD's d...

In an amended order, a district court granted FWS' and NMFS' motion to voluntarily remand a series of regulations enacted by the Trump Administration that modified how the Services implement the ESA. Environmental groups, states, and cities had argued the regulations violated the ESA, the APA, and N...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a religious group's challenge to FERC's approval of a natural gas pipeline along land owned by the group. The group argued that the use of its land to facilitate extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels violated its religious beliefs...

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the Forest Service in a challenge to its planned road construction project near Mount St. Helens to address the threat of a nearby lake's potential breach. Environmental groups argued the project violated NEPA and the Nationa...

A district court denied summary judgment for environmental and tribal groups in a challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue permits under the CWA and the Rivers and Harbors Act for a project to replace sections of an oil pipeline in Minnesota. The groups argued the Corps' decision ...