A court partially grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) and individuals' motions to dismiss a class action suit stemming from plaintiffs' exposure to hazardous substances in the interior of their residences, schools, and workplaces as a result of the dust and debris released from...

A court affirms, modifies, and reverses a lower court's judgments in seven coordinated cases involving the California State Water Resource Control Board's (Board's) implementation of a water quality plan in a water rights proceeding, a related environmental impact report, a joint points of diversion...

The court holds that municipal flow control ordinances do not violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The municipal scheme at issue requires that the garbage generated by local households and businesses be delivered to facilities that are owned and operated by a public corporat...

The court upholds a lower court decision denying a nonprofit group's petition for writ of mandate and claim for declaratory relief in a case challenging a state pesticide department's decision to renew a number of pesticide registrations for 2002. The department’s procedure of renewing pestici...

The court affirms the denial of the Quapaw Indian Tribe's motion to dismiss companies' counterclaims against it in a suit alleging that the companies and their predecessors-in-interest caused environmental contamination on tribal lands due to mining activities in the 1900s. Because a tribe waives it...

A court holds that under former California Food and Agricultural Code §12811.5, the state pesticides department may not actively or passively consider data submitted by an original registrant when considering a subsequent application for registration by another applicant who does not have the o...

A court reverses the dismissal of property owners' complaint challenging a city's creation of a fire suppression assessment district. The lower court determined that the owners failed to exhaust their administrative remedies as provided in a local ordinance. The ordinance, however, lacks any procedu...

The court upholds the dismissal of an individual's claims for money paid by his predecessors in the early 1970s for the purchase of tribal land held in trust by the U.S. government that was never conveyed. The individual's action to enforce the sales contract was precluded by a tribal court judgment...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) did not violate the Privacy Act by disclosing an individual's personal information on its public website. The Corps posted the information to defend itself from media inquiries stemming from a newspaper article that was critical of th...

A court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Energy Policy Act in refusing to require large private and municipal fleets of motor vehicles to use alternative fuel vehicles. The Energy Policy Act, which was designed to reduce air pollution, global warming, and U.S. dependence o...