A district court dismissed a nonprofit group's challenge to an EPA directive that prohibited scientists in receipt of certain EPA grants from serving on the Agency's federal advisory committees. The group argued that the directive violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirement that c...

A district court granted EPA's motion to dismiss a CWA lawsuit seeking to require the Agency to publish New York's water quality standards. The Agency asserted that environmental groups lacked subject matter jurisdiction to bring the suit because EPA had a discretionary, rather than nondiscretionary...

A district court denied a manufacturing company's motion to dismiss a CWA lawsuit alleging that the company improperly stored and disposed of industrial waste at its sheet metal manufacturing facility. The company argued that an environmental group did not have standing to sue because it failed to n...

A district court granted residents' motion for summary judgment in a RCRA lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for inhumane and dangerous living conditions at a residential development located on a former landfill site previously operated by the city. The residents argued that the city had previo...

A district court granted in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM authorization of oil and gas leasing on federal land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The groups argued that the EAs and FONSIs issued violated NEPA because BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the agency's authorization of travel management plans that permitted motorized game retrieval within a mile of every open road in three districts of the Kaibab National Forest. Environmental groups argued the...

A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...

The D.C. Circuit reversed a district court's decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a transmission line that would cross the historic James River. Conservation groups argued that the Corps should have prepared an EIS for the project because it would significantly impact his...

A district court granted federal and state transportation agencies' motion to dismiss a nonprofit group's challenge to a light rail project, known as the Purple Line project, that would connect suburban Maryland commuters to existing transit stations that connect to Washington, D.C. The group argued...

A district court denied BLM's and the U.S. Forest Service's motion to dismiss a challenge by a cattle rancher for failing to submit land use plan amendments to protect the greater sage-grouse to Congress for review. The rancher, which operates on lands affected by the agencies' amendments, argued th...