A district court granted in part a motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM from permitting a ranching company to use two grazing allotments that had been authorized by the Secretary of the Interior in response to a presidential pardon of the company's prior criminal convictions. Environmental groups argu...
A state high court reversed a summary judgment for a natural gas producer in a challenge to the interpretation of leases it entered into with North Dakota. Before the lower court, the producer challenged the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands' conclusion that the producer had improperly calculat...
A district court dismissed a challenge to FWS' denial of a petition to remove the coastal California gnatcatcher from the ESA's threatened species list. Advocacy groups argued the Service's denial of their petition to delist the bird species violated the ESA because the decision was not based on an ...
A state appellate court held invalid the Department of Ecology's administrative rule establishing summer minimum instream flows for the lower reach of the Spokane River. Environmental groups challenged the validity of the rule, arguing that it exceeded the Department's authority under the Water Reso...
The D.C. Circuit upheld an EPA rule that classified as "recycled" certain hazardous material sent to a third-party reclamation facility and thus exempted the material from RCRA regulations governing discarded waste. Environmental groups argued the rule violated RCRA because material that a generator...
A district court granted summary judgment to DOT, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation in a challenge to the agencies' EA regarding the replacement of a movable railroad bridge in Norwalk, Connecticut. A conservation group argued the EA was inadequate ...
A state district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by an automobile dealers' association challenging Colorado's adoption of California's low emission vehicle standard. The association argued the adoption would drive up the cost of vehicles for dealers and buyers, causing its members to suffer econom...
A district court granted environmental groups' motions for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's 2017 determination that it did not need to authorize a proposed water pipeline project in southern California because the project fell within the scope of a right-of-way granted to a railroad company ...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the Service's designation of at-risk forest lands and its approval of a project aimed to address spreading pine-beetle infestation in previously designated at-risk areas in Tahoe National Forest. Environmenta...
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Auer doctrine, deferring to the Department of Veterans Affairs' interpretation of an ambiguous regulation in a lawsuit concerning disability benefits. A veteran challenged the lower court's application of the doctrine, arguing that the APA's judicial review provisio...