Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held that a 2017 EPA directive that prohibited scientists in receipt of certain EPA grants from serving on the Agency's federal advisory committees was arbitrary and capricious. An environmental group argued, among other things, that the directive failed to provide a reasoned explan...
Jam v. International Finance Corp.
A district court held an international development bank that financed construction of a coal-fired power plant in India was immune from a suit brought by a group of Indian villagers claiming the plant polluted surrounding air, land, and water. The bank argued that the group could not sue it in feder...
Downstream Addicks and Barker (Texas) Flood-Control Reservoirs
The Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. government was not liable for the flooding of homes near two dams managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Property owners downstream of the dams argued that the government flooded their lands by opening the dams' ...
State Preemption of Local Government: The Philadelphia Story
We are practitioners for the City of Philadelphia with extensive experience in cases and analysis regarding the extent to which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has, or has not, preempted local regulation in various subjects of concern to the City. As City attorneys, our perspective is based in our role as advocates for the preservation and defense of the City’s exercise of its home rule powers. In considering the city-state relationship, many of the practical, political and cultural issues addressed in Prof. Richard C.