A district court dismissed the state of Alaska's lawsuit against the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) regarding the Board's authorization of a subsistence hunt for a southeast Alaska tribe. Alaska argued the FSB violated the APA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the Sunshine A...
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, denied a petition for review challenging FAA's decision that found no significant environmental impact stemming from construction and operation of an air cargo facility at the San Bernardino International Airport. The state of California, environmental groups, a union, and in...
The Second Circuit reversed in part and vacated in part a district court ruling that ordered EPA to disclose records pursuant to a FOIA request related to a former Agency official's role in pesticide policymaking. An environmental group submitted FOIA requests for the records, and EPA invoked the de...
The First Circuit granted NOAA's motion to stay a district court order preliminarily enjoining the agency's partial seasonal closure of a Maine lobster fishery to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. A fishing union had argued the closure was an arbitrary and capricious application of the...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed as moot Alaska's challenge to the Forest Service's 2001 Roadless Rule. The challenge centered on the Roadless Rule's impact on the Tongass National Forest, which the USDA exempted from the rule in 2020, but the state argued it should be allowed to proceed because the exemp...
The D.C. Circuit granted a trade group's petition to review a 2016 rule issued by EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that set greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles. The group challenged the agencies' authority t...
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mississippi against Tennessee seeking damages for a Tennessee city's pumping of groundwater from the Middle Claiborne Aquifer. Mississippi argued that the pumping siphoned water away from Mississippi and amounted to a tortious taking of groundwat...
A district court granted environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a logging project in the Willamette National Forest in areas affected by wildfires. The groups argued the Forest Service could not use the road repair and maintenance categorical exclusion (CE) to avoid NEPA review of the ...
A district court granted in part and denied in part NMFS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit seeking an expansion of the Service's 2008 Vessel Speed Rule to protect North Atlantic right whales. Conservation groups argued NMFS had unreasonably delayed its response to the groups' 2012 and 2020 petitions to e...
A district court granted in part and denied in part gasoline companies' motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the state of Maryland seeking to redress alleged contamination of its waters with methyl tertiary butyl ether. Maryland brought various common law claims and statutory claims u...