The D.C. Circuit held that the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) "conflict materials" rule violates the First Amendment. SEC issued the rule in 2012 pursuant to §1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which requires SEC to issue regulations requiring firms...

A district court dismissed three New Hampshire cities' citizen suit challenging EPA's decision to approve New Hampshire's impaired waters list under the CWA. The cities lack standing because the regulatory decisions that the cities challenge have not yet caused them harm, and whether cities will be ...

A district court issued a memorandum opinion and order holding that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection may temporarily, but not indefinitely, suspend the requirement that permit holders that do not have selenium limits or monitoring and reporting requirements on their face must...

A district court dismissed an environmental groups' citizen suit against a water authority for alleged CWA and state law violations in connection with the discharge of stormwater from a municipal separate storm sewer system to the Allegheny River. The groups did not argue that the authority violated...

A district court upheld the constitutionality of a New York county's solid waste flow control ordinance that directs all solid waste generated within the county to designated publicly owned but privately operated processing facilities. Solid waste companies alleged that, by preventing non-designated...

In a 100+ page opinion, a district court vacated EPA's water transfers rule, which excludes water transfers that convey or connect "waters of the United States without subjecting the transferred water to intervening industrial, municipal, or commercial use" from the CWA's NPDES permitting requiremen...

A district court held that plaintiffs may go forward with their CWA citizen suit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and a California water authority in a case involving the need for a NPDES permit for an irrigation project jointly administered by the two agencies. The plaintiffs pled sufficient ...

The Federal Claims Court awarded a Florida developer $4 million after finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' denial of the developer's §404 permit request to dredge and fill a five-acre plot of land effected a compensable taking. The Federal Circuit had previously ruled on appeal that the f...

A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with their CWA lawsuit against a rail carrier for allowing coal dust from open-top rail cars to be released into U.S. waterways. At issue was whether coal dust from rail cars that falls onto land, rather than directly into the waters, of...

The Sixth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers complied with NEPA and the CWA when it issued a §404 permit to a mining company for a secondary mining project that was part of a larger mining operation in Kentucky. The Kentucky Division of Mine Permits, which has exclusive jurisdiction...