The court affirms a district court dismissal of an Ohio solid waste collection company's claim that a county's waste processing rules violated the company's constitutional rights. The county adopted rules that required the county's waste to be disposed of in county-designated landfills that agreed t...
The court sets aside the critical habitat designation (CHD) for the southwestern willow flycatcher because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') adoption of a baseline approach to measure the economic impact of the flycatcher CHD was an erroneous construction of the Endangered Species Act (ESA...
The court reverses a district court decision holding that although a Florida city's rezoning of property to prohibit the operation of a wood-chipping business constituted an unconstitutional taking, damages should not be awarded to the business. The city approved the business' operation on a propose...
The court holds that the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) preempted a municipal ordinance requiring a railroad to cut weeds along its right-of-way within the municipality. The FRSA regulates every area of railroad safety, and the Act preempts all railroad safety legislation except for specific sta...
The court holds that a county zoning board's denial of an existing nonconforming use certificate to a strip miner that also wanted to operate a landfill on its property did not violate the strip mining company's due process or equal protection rights or constitute a taking without just compensation....
The court reverses and remands a district court decision and holds that counties' flow-control ordinances, which require that all waste generated within the counties be delivered to one of five publicly owned facilities, are not unconstitutional under the U.S. Commerce Clause. In-state waste haulers...
The court holds that a trial court erred in not evaluating evidence of environmental contamination and remediation costs related to a company's property that a regional economic alliance, acting for a town, took by eminent domain. The court first holds that excluding contamination evidence, as a mat...
The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court order enjoining the future planting of disputed genetically engineered alfalfa seed pending the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's completion of an enivironmental impact statement. The district court applied the traditional balancing test, and no...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) did not violate appellants' First Amendment rights or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it established safety zones insulating a private "super ferry" in Hawaii from blockade by local protesters...
The First Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a developer's equal protection claim against a town for intentionally obstructing a condominium real estate development project. The city ordered the developer to take certain remediation measures to control erosion and prevent damage to n...