The court holds that a local ordinance imposing geographic restrictions on the sources of waste for a regional medical waste incinerator does not violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. A commercial enterprise obtained authorization to construct a medical waste incinerator, and after c...

The court holds en banc that the arbitrary and capricious standard of review applies to agency decisions not to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act. The court overrules its prior decisions holding that a reasonableness standard of review should...

The Court rules that a South Carolina beachfront regulation that prohibits construction seaward of a setback line cannot be sustained without paying just compensation for a developer's lost use of two vacant beachfront lots. The developer bought the lots, located on a South Carolina barrier island, ...

The court holds that the district court, in applying the rule of reason, did not abuse its discretion in dissolving an injunction when it held that the environmental impact statements (EISs) produced by the National Park Service (NPS), concerning the impact of any possible future mining activity in ...

The court vacates and remands a magistrate judge's decision that a Florida county's land use plan resulted in a taking of waterfront property under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, because the magistrate judge misapplied the legal standard for partial takings and failed ...

The court, in a sequel case to Seattle Audubon Society v. Evans, 22 ELR 20372, enjoins the U.S. Forest Service from making additional timber sales in U.S. Forest Service Regions Five and Six that would log suitable habitat for the northern spotted owl until revised standards and guidelines complying...

The court holds that an appeal by commercial fishermen from a federal district court's dismissal of the fishermen's constitutional taking, equal protection, and due process challenge of a court-approved Michigan plan to restore aboriginal fishing rights to Michigan Indians, involving exclusive fishi...

The court holds that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps') cease and desist order requiring a land developer to suspend construction on wetlands' portions of a residential development for three years did not constitute a taking of property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amend...

On remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the South Carolina Supreme Court directs the trial court to make specific findings of damages, commencing with the date of enactment of the 1988 state Beachfront Management Act through the date of the court's order, to compensate a landowner for a temporary dep...

The court holds that state and federal agencies involved in a proposed port project in Searsport, Maine, reasonably decided to restrict the analysis in an environmental impact statement (EIS) of secondary impacts from the project to four light-dry industries. The court also holds that the district c...