Texas v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Fifth Circuit agreed to rehear a petition for review that it previously denied concerning EPA's designation of two counties in Texas as nonattainment for the 2010 sulfur dioxide NAAQS. The state of Texas and a power plant operator argued EPA violated the CAA by ignoring monitoring data that purp...
A Treaty Right to Healthy Forests? Using Tribal Fishing Rights to Challenge Timber Sales
Tribes in the Pacific Northwest have faced persistent obstacles to their exercise of treaty fishing rights, most prominently illegal regulation of off-reservation fishing by state governments. As salmon decline, a new frontier is emerging for treaty right violations: environmental degradation. A recent court victory ruled that a series of culverts owned and operated by the state of Washington violated tribal treaty rights to fish for salmonids at their “usual and accustomed” places.
WildEarth Guardians v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service
A district court granted summary judgment for an environmental group in a challenge to FWS' 2023 12-month finding that Joshua trees were not warranted for listing under the ESA for the "foreseeable future." The group argued FWS violated the ESA because it failed to use best available science, i...