The court affirms in part and reverses in part a district court decision holding that certain beneficiaries to the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact (the Compact) had a right to sue Nebraska for acts delaying the construction of the Compact's disposal facility and that the state...

The court holds that initiative measures generated and placed on the ballot by a public agency are not exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The city of Sierra Madre enacted a historic preservation ordinance, and several owners of landmarked property claimed that their propert...

The court dismisses individuals' public nuisance action against sugar companies that allegedly disposed of a chemical byproduct of sugar cane processing by deep well injection. A trial court dismissed the individuals' nuisance claim because the individuals did not exhaust their administrative remedi...

The court affirms a district court decision holding that a city did not violate property owners' procedural and substantive due process rights when it granted a neighboring property owner a special use permit allowing the operation of a beauty salon and the paving of a yard. The court first holds th...

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the federal government holds title in trust for the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe to submerged lands underlying portions of Lake Coeur d'Alene and the St. Joe River in Idaho. The reservation was created by executive order in 1873, but it was never ratified by Congress....

The court affirms a trial court dismissal of a company's claim under R.C. Chapter 3746—the state voluntary action cleanup law—against the state department of transportation for costs allegedly incurred cleaning up contaminated company property. The court first holds that the company failed to un...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing commercial fishermen's takings claim against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for prohibiting commercial fishing on waters surrounding the Palmyra National Wildlife Refuge. The fishermen argued they were entitled to compensation...

A Minnesota appellate court upheld a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency rule governing phosphorus effluent discharges into state waters. A coalition of cities argued that because the rule provides that a discharger "may" rather than "shall" qualify for an exemption if it demonstrates that it can mee...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal of a property owner's claim for just compensation after the FWS required mitigation in connection with its sale of property to the U.S. Navy. A property owner sought to sell some of its land to the U.S. Navy. But because the FWS deemed the site ...

A district court held that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection may intervene in environmental groups' lawsuit challenging the DOI Secretary's approval of two amendments to the state's surface mining regulatory program. Although the goal of the state agency appears to be identica...