Search Results
Use the filters on the left-hand side of this screen to refine the results further by topic or document type.

Beentjes v. Placer County Air Pollution Control Dist.

The Ninth Circuit held that California's air pollution control districts are not arms of the state and therefore are not entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. To determine whether an entity is an arm of the state, the Ninth Circuit uses a five-point test that looks at whether ...

Stearns Co., Ltd. v. United States

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) produced a physical taking of a company's mineral rights. In 1937, the company sold the surface rights of land in the Daniel Boone National Forest to the United States but it retained the ...

Oil-Dri Corp. of Nev. v. Washoe County

A Nevada court upheld a county decision denying a company's request for a special use permit to mine clay from two open pits on federal land north of Reno, Nevada, and to build a plant to produce cat litter on private land nearby. The Mining Law of 1872 and federal regulations don't exempt the proje...

Walker v. Mesquite, Tex., City of

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of residents' lawsuit against the Dallas Housing Authority seeking to enjoin it from constructing public housing in their community. The decision to build does not violate the residents' right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. The authority ...

MacKenzie v. San Marcos, City of

A district court dismissed property owners' takings, substantive due process, and equal protection claims against a city after the city denied the owners' request for building permits. The owners' takings claim was dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The owners did not adequately seek...

Alpine Lakes Protection Soc'y v. U.S. Forest Serv.

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) was required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to consider the connected and cumulative impacts of a timber company's proposed timber-management project and six applications for access-road permits to the company. The Forest...

NEPA Coalition of Japan v. Aspin

The court holds that the presumption against extraterritoriality prevents the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) from having to prepare environmental impact studies (EISs) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for U.S. military installations in Japan. The presumption is supported by forei...

Oregon Waste Sys., Inc. v. Department of Envtl. Quality

The Court rules that the state of Oregon's imposition of a surcharge on the in-state disposal of solid waste generated in other states that is nearly three times that imposed on the disposal of waste generated within Oregon violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Oregon imposed a $2.5...

O'Conner v. Commonwealth Edison Co.

The court holds that a nuclear facility employee's state suit for damages based on personal injury allegedly caused by exposure to unsafe dosages of radiation was constitutionally removed to federal court under the Price-Anderson Amendments Act (PAAA), and that retroactive application of the PAAA di...

Sierra Club v. Cargill

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) did not abuse its discretion in finding that a change from a seven-year regeneration standard to a five-year standard did not effect a significant change in its land and resource management plan for the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming,...