A district court upheld President Barack Obama's 2016 proclamation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the New England coast as a marine national monument. Commercial fishing associations argued that the monument exceeded the president's authority under the Antiquities Act because it lies ent...

The court holds that although the owner of a wastewater facility that discharged untreated wastewater into a river was properly convicted for violating Clean Water Act (CWA) §309(c)(1)(A), a district court erred in reducing the fine initially imposed by a magistrate judge. The court first holds tha...

The court vacates a district court decision granting summary judgment in favor of the United States in its action to quiet title to ownership of gravel located on a ranch acquired by a family as successors-in-interest following a land exchange patent issued under the Indian Reorganization Act of 193...

The court reverses a district court decision imposing joint and several liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) against the former owner of the Vertac Chemical Plant site in Jacksonville, Arkansas, and rejecting the former owner's argument t...

A district court remanded the U.S. Forest Service's decision concerning the management of roads and trails in the Santa Fe National Forest. An environmental group argued that the agency should have considered the effects of forest management on the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander. The magistra...

A district court vacated FWS' decision to delist the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated the APA by failing to consider the impact of delisting on other remaining grizzly populations and arbitrarily and capriciously applying...

A district court vacated FWS' designation of land in California as critical habitat for the endangered Riverside fairy shrimp. Property owners argued that the agency improperly designated 56 acres of land as "occupied" habitat even though the shrimp species live only in the adjacent one-acre stock p...

A district court denied Colorado's and Utah's request to vacate FWS' decision to list the Gunnison sage grouse species as threatened under the ESA. The states argued that many of the agency's claimed threats to the species were unsupported by science, and that its determinations were arbitrary and c...

A district court ruled in favor of fishermen's challenge to NMFS regulations regarding offshore aquaculture in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The fishermen argued that the regulations were facially invalid because they fall outside the agency's authority to regulate fisheries under the Magnus...

A district court denied commercial fishing groups' request to preliminarily enjoin development of a wind energy facility off the coast of New York. The groups argued that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) violated NEPA when it issued a lease to the company by improperly segmenting the ana...