The D.C. Circuit held that the USDA's decision to alter territorial lines of the Devil's Garden Wild Horse Territory section of the Modoc National Forest was in violation of NEPA. Since 1975, the United States Forest Service has protected and managed wild horses in the Devil’s Garden section in No...

The D.C. Circuit held that the USDA did not violate the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) when it renewed the licenses of animal exhibitors the agency knew was in violation of numerous animal welfare requirements. Animal activists brought suit against the agency, challenging its renewal of a license to an Io...

A district court held that a township's Home Rule Charter prohibiting deposition of any waste from oil and gas extraction within the township and invalidating any state permit to the contrary was preempted by the SDWA. In 2014, EPA granted an oil company a permit for an underground injection control...

A district court held an Alabama industrial park owner can't pursue claims against the federal government for damage to its property that occurred during a Superfund cleanup. As part of the cleanup, EPA disposed of, cut, severed, tore up from the ground, and removed roughly 1,400 feet of track owned...

A district court held that a group of North Dakota property owners could not sue contractors hired to negotiate easements for the Dakota Access pipeline for misrepresentation and fraud. The contractors were hired to obtain easements from property owners to secure a path for the Dakota Access pipelin...

A district court held that the Dakota Access pipeline can continue to operate while the Army Corps of Engineers corrects deficiencies in its EA for the project. In an earlier decision, the court held that the Corps did not adequately consider the consequences of a spill for the plaintiff tribe's fis...

A district court held that BLM violated the APA when it postponed compliance with Obama-era greenhouse gas emission rules. Several states and tribal citizen groups brought suit against BLM when it published a notice in the Federal Register postponing compliance dates for certain sections of the Wast...

A district court held that a tribal appellate court had the authority to impose permit fees on an operator of a phosphorus production plant. The plant sits on 1,450 acres of land lying mostly within Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation, and produced 22 million tons of waste stored on the reservati...

An Illinois appellate court held that owners of an apartment building tainted by a leaky underground gasoline storage tank should have been allowed to join cleanup litigation brought by the state. The state sued two oil companies for a 2014 spill that contaminated soil and groundwater. The spill cre...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court decision that allocated 100% liability under CERCLA to a government contractor seeking contribution from the U.S. government. For 60 years the contractor operated a manufacturing facility where it manufactured aircrafts primarily for the U.S. government. F...