The court holds that a paint manufacturer is entitled to contribution and declaratory relief under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act from the former owner of a hazardous waste site south of Baltimore, Maryland. The court first holds that because the manufactur...

A district court granted environmental groups' motion for summary judgment and required USDA's Wildlife Services to conduct a more thorough analysis of the potential impacts of its predator-killing operations before expanding those operations to game animals and protected species. Environmental grou...

The Ninth Circuit vacated a lower court's conviction of a man in Montana for killing a threatened grizzly bear in violation of the ESA. The man claimed that he was acting in self-defense when he killed the bear behind his home in May 2014. Applying an "objectively reasonable" standard to the man's e...

The U.S. Supreme Court, in an ongoing dispute between Florida and Georgia over the apportionment of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin's waters, remanded a Special Master's recommendation that Florida's request for a cap on Georgia's consumption of water from the Flint River be denied....

The Texas Supreme Court upheld an appellate court decision prohibiting a city's efforts to ban the use of single-use plastic and paper bags. A retail association argued that an ordinance adopted in 2014 to reduce litter from the bags conflicted with the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act. The appellate ...

A district court granted in part but largely denied in part EPA's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by environmental groups alleging that EPA failed to consult with federal wildlife agencies before registering over 2,000 pesticide products. The groups argued that EPA violated the ESA by failing to e...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision rejecting environmental groups' claim that Export-Import Bank violated the ESA and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The groups argued that the agency failed to follow proper procedures set forth in the ESA and NHPA before approving financ...

A district court granted oil companies' motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco alleging that the companies make and sell products that create a public nuisance—global-warming-induced sea-level rise—when combusted. The cities further alleged that the oil co...

The court holds that a California scrap metal company's stormwater discharge, stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP), and monitoring and reporting plan (MRP) violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and state water law. The court first holds that the company violated the CWA by failing to develop an...

The court holds that a district court properly granted summary judgment to state and private landowners that a Native American tribe sued under the Quiet Title Act (QTA) in an effort to assert ownership of a North Dakota lake, but that the district court lacked jurisdiction to grant summary judgment...