A district court granted an environmental group's motion for reconsideration and overturned its previous decision upholding the DOI's "Counterpart ESA §7 Consultation Regulations" for National Fire Plan (NFP) projects. The government's rationale for proposing the rule in the first instance was ...

A district court held that oil and gas companies should not be criminally charged under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for the death of migratory birds found in North Dakota oil fields. The MBTA, as broadly interpreted by the U.S. government, offers unlimited potential for criminal prosec...

The Federal Claims Court dismissed a water district's claim that certain operating restrictions on a water project imposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the ESA to protect endangered steelhead trout is a physical taking entitling it to compensation under the Fifth Amendment. The res...

A district court upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') decision to list the Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered under the ESA. The state of Alaska, an oil company, and several nonprofit corporations challenged the decision, questioning the rationale behind the NFMS' decision, its ...