The court vacates a lower court decision finding that the United States is not liable to a mining company for the alleged permanent physical taking of its leasehold interest in a 158-acre tract of land in Michigan. The takings claim arose after a landfill north of the company's plant was placed on t...

The court upheld a lower court decision dismissing residents' takings claim against a city for the dewatering of their water wells in the 1990s. Their takings claim based on past violations was barred by the statute of limitations because it was delinquently filed in federal court. Meanwhile, their ...

The Court reversed the Fourth Circuit's grant of summary judgment in favor of a coal-fired power plant operator charged with violating the Clean Air Act's (CAA's) prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) regulations. The CAA's PSD and new source performance standards (NSPS) provisions both cove...

The Seventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' takings claim against a city for allowing their land to become flooded due to city-owned stormwater detention ponds and a wastewater treatment facility. The flooding transformed their land from farmland to wetlands. The landowners filed an inve...

The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of rescue, search, and cleanup workers' substantive due process complaint against federal officials for knowingly issuing false statements about air quality safety in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of the World Trade Center. The wor...

The Federal Claims Court denied the U.S. government's motion to dismiss property owners' takings claims against it in connection with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's project along the shore of Lake Michigan. The owners claimed that the Corps' construction and maintenance of jetties from 1950 to 1989...

The court held that General Statutes §22a-196, which prohibits the operation of asphalt batching and continuous mix facilities within one-third of a mile from any hospital, nursing home, school, area of critical environmental concern, watercourse, or residential area, does not violate the due proce...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the Clean Air Act (CAA) does not preempt certain provisions of local "fleet rules" requiring operators to meet specified emission standards or engine requirements, but reversed and remanded the court's refusal to consider whether the CAA preempt...

A district court held that a county ordinance that bans the land application of "Los Angeles sludge" in the unincorporated areas of the county violates the Commerce Clause. The city of Los Angeles generates a large amount of sewage treatment residues, some substantial portion of which it would shi...

A district court dismissed international shipping entities' lawsuit seeking to invalidate Michigan's Ballast Water Statute, which is aimed to prevent the introduction of aquatic nuisance species into the Great Lakes. The statute requires all oceangoing vessels to obtain permits from the state if the...