A district court held that an Idaho "ag-gag" law that criminalizes undercover investigations of agricultural production operations violates the U.S. Constitution. Under the law, a journalist or animal rights investigator can be convicted for not disclosing his media or political affiliations when re...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') designation of critical habitat for the southern distinct population of green sturgeon, a threatened species. The rule designated approximately 11,421 square miles of marine habitat, 897 square miles of estuary habitat, and hun...

The Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition challenging an NPDES permit authorizing oil and gas exploration facilities' discharge of 13 waste streams into the Beaufort Sea. The petition was filed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, which represents Alaska Native villages tha...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a 2010 FWS rule designating critical habitat for the threatened Santa Ana sucker, a small freshwater fish native to several California rivers and streams. In 2004, FWS approved a habitat conservation plan that encompassed nearly 1.26 million acres and provided participating ...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service violated ESA §7 when it failed to reinitiate consultation after FWS designated critical habitat for the Canada lynx on National Forest land. In 2006, FWS designated critical habitat for the Canada lynx that did not include any National Forest land...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE's) approval of oil spill response plans for an oil company's leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas on Alaska's Arctic coast. Several environmental groups claimed that BSEE's approval was arbitrary and capricious un...

The D.C. Circuit held that building and development associations lacked standing to challenge consent decrees that require FWS to determine, in accordance with a settlement-defined schedule, whether 251 species should be listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. The case arose after environm...

A district court adopted a magistrate judge's report and recommendation and ordered FWS to finalize and approve a comprehensive conservation plan for five national wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin Complex on or before August 1, 2016. FWS conceded, and the court had already ordered, that FWS vio...

A district court held that FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the ESA and NEPA when they issued 50-year incidental take permits to a farm to take the northern spotted owl and the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast coho salmon, both of which are "threatened" species....

A district court held that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the ESA, and NEPA when it authorized the U.S. Navy to take large numbers of marine mammals, some of which are endangered or threatened, incidental to training and testing activit...