A district court granted in part summary judgment for nonprofit groups in a suit concerning a logging project in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. One group argued the project violated the Roadless Rule because the Forest Service was surreptitiously planning to construct new roads in an in...

A district court vacated the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant an easement under the Mineral Leasing Act for the Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs from North Dakota to Illinois, after previously ruling that the Corps must prepare an EIS for the pipeline to comply with NEPA. The court found...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to its 2017 offer and sale of oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmental groups argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EA or EIS for the lease sale and failing to take a hard look at it...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to the agency's "geld and release" plan for wild horses in northeastern Nevada. An animal rights group argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS for the plan because five of the Act's intensity factors demonstrated t...

The D.C. Circuit invalidated FERC's longstanding practice of issuing tolling orders to extend the statutory period for acting on requests for rehearing of its orders, in a lawsuit concerning the Commission's granting of a certificate of public convenience and necessity to a natural gas pipeline in P...

A district court permanently enjoined a California Proposition 65 warning requirement on the weedkiller glyphosate. Agribusiness groups argued the law, which requires warning labels for products containing chemicals known to California to cause cancer, as applied to glyphosate compelled speech under...

A district court vacated a timber harvesting project in Tongass National Forest after previously ruling that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the National Forest Management Act when it authorized the project. Both the plaintiff environmental ...

The Federal Circuit reversed a Court of Federal Claims ruling that the U.S. government was liable for flooding private properties when it raised the water level of a lake in Mississippi to prevent a nearby levee from breaching. Landowners argued that raising the water level of the lake, which subseq...

A district court ruled unconstitutional provisions of a North Carolina statute that restricted undercover investigations of facilities and farms where animal testing or processing takes place. Nonprofit groups argued that provisions of the statute violated the First Amendment because they failed the...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the Forest Service's approval of two forest-thinning projects in the Santa Fe National Forest. Environmental groups and individuals argued the Service violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the projects' effects on inventoried roadless areas and their cumulative imp...