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Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon: A Clarion Call for Property Rights Advocates

Editors' Summary: Property rights advocates implicitly complained in Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon that a Fish and Wildlife Service regulation that aimed to protect endangered and threatened species by defining "harm" to include habitat modification impinged on their rights as private landowners by asking them to share with the government responsibility for protecting such species. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the regulation as reasonable given the relevant language of the Endangered Species Act.

Earning Deference: Reflections on the Merger of Environmental and Land Use Law

The bedrock notion that courts should, in the overwhelming majority of cases, defer to lawmakers is currently under attack in the nation's courts, commentary, and classrooms. Leading the way are several U.S. Supreme Court Justices who, in cases involving the U.S. Commerce Clause, Takings Clause, and §5 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, are much more willing than their immediate predecessors to second-guess the motives and tactics of elected and appointed officials at all levels of government.

Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Concrete Sales & Servs., Inc.

The court holds that a nail manufacturer did not own or control the hazardous materials generated by an electroplating company and, thus, is not liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) as an arranger of hazardous waste. The court first holds th...

Donahey v. Bogle

The court holds that the owner of all the stock of the former lessee of a contaminated site is not liable as an operator under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107(a)(2). The court first holds that the owners' of the contaminated site may not be awarde...

Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Concrete Sales & Servs., Inc.

The court holds that bus manufacturers were not arrangers under §107(a)(3) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for the treatment or disposal of hazardous substances generated by an electroplating business. The owner and trustees of the site where th...

Cooper Indus., Inc. v. Agway, Inc.

The court holds that a manufacturer is liable for response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for dumping scrap steel and aluminum at a Superfund site. The court also grants another company's motion to certify for interlocutory appeal wheth...

East Bay Mun. Util. Dist. v. Department of Commerce

The court holds that the U.S. government is not liable as an operator under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for hazardous waste cleanup costs at an abandoned mine site. The court first holds that CERCLA clearly exposes the federal government to suit...

Would the Superfund Response Cost Allocation Procedures Considered by the 103d Congress Reduce Transaction Costs?

One of the most prominent issues in the Congressional debate over reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) has been how to reduce "transaction costs" while at the same time fairly and expeditiously resolving liability disputes. This Dialogue asks: Would the allocation procedures proposed in last year's Superfund reauthorization bills meet those sometimes conflicting goals?

Ekotek Site PRP Comm. v. Self

The court holds that a potentially responsible party (PRP) must pay 1 percent of the past and future response costs incurred during the cleanup of a contaminated site in Salt Lake City, Utah, by a committee of PRPs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERC...