A judge dissents from the Ninth Circuit's decision not to rehear a case addressing the Oil Pollution Act's (OPA's) preemptive effect on Washington State's oil spill prevention regulations. The initial Ninth Circuit opinion held that the OPA did not preempt the majority of the state's oil spill regul...
The court holds that the former owner and operator of a refinery may not bring cost recovery or contribution actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) against the subsequent and current owners. The court first holds that the former owner is a pe...
The court denies a corporation's motion to reconsider a ruling that disputed issues of material fact exist as to whether the corporation's neighbor can claim an innocent landowner defense, which would allow the neighbor to pursue a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Ac...
In a recent essay, David Coursen asks an important and unexamined question: Are environmental justice policies, which seek to avoid disproportionate environmental burdens on minority and poor communities, on a "collision course" with the Equal Protection Clause? In concluding that a potential collision is more illusory than real, Coursen offers a number of reasons why governmental actions to promote environmental justice have not been challenged in court and, even if they were to be, would not be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.
The court holds that the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) decision to enter or extend power contracts with several direct service industries (DSIs) was not arbitrary and capricious as alleged by a coalition of consumers, public power associations, and environmental groups. The court first add...
The court dismisses environmental groups' petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) refusal to initiate an Endangered Species Act (ESA) §7(a)(2) consultation regarding its ongoing regulatory authority over a power company's Hells Canyon complex in Idaho. The court first...
The Court holds that the tribal exhaustion doctrine does not require a district court to abstain from deciding whether Native Americans' tort claims arising from uranium mining on their reservation constitute public liability actions under the Price-Anderson Act. The defendant companies filed suit i...
The court holds that the Price-Anderson Act conferred federal jurisdiction on a district court in a removal action where individuals alleged tortious injury arising from uranium mining. In two separate class action suits, over 1,000 individuals alleged personal injury and property damage arising fro...
The court holds that environmental groups did not show that New York City's plan to sell or bulldoze lots containing community gardens would have an impermissible adverse impact on minority communities. The groups opposed the city's plan claiming that it would violate U.S. Environmental Protection A...
The court holds that because Title VI proscribes only intentional discrimination, residents of a predominantly minority community do not have a right to enforce through 42 U.S.C. §1983 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Title VI §602 disparate impact discrimination regulations agai...