The court vacates an individual's sentence for illegally dredging North Carolina's Croatan Sound during a bridge construction project and remands the case for resentencing. The district court misapplied U.S. Sentencing Guideline §5K2.20 when it granted the individual a downward departure for aberra...

The court upheld an interlocutory order joining a city as a third-party defendant in an environmental group's 14-year-old Clean Water Act (CWA) action against a county, but certified to the New York Court of Appeals questions concerning the county's condemnation power. Parties to the underlying CWA ...

A court upheld a lower court decision ordering the state wildlife conservation board to set aside its approval of a project involving the conversion of agricultural land into wildlife habitat as categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Despite the intended beneficia...

The court held that a local ordinance that forbids any new oil and gas drilling within 1,000 feet of a lake is "preempted" by state law rather than "invalid." As explained by a prior panel of the court, a state statute expressly prohibits local political subdivisions from interfering with the drilli...

The court held that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation did not breach its repayment contract with a municipal water district concerning a water reclamation project on the Ventura River in California when it required the district to build a $9.1 million fish passage facility and to relinquish a portion o...

The court upheld the award of attorney fees in favor of a county in a case involving a state agency's proposal to convert agricultural land into wildlife habitat. Although the action was ultimately dismissed, the county's action resulted in the modification of a conservation easement to permit grazi...

The court held that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) arbitrarily and capriciously transferred the functions performed by the Fish Passage Center—providing technical assistance and information to fish and wildlife agencies, Indian tribes, and the general public on matters related to salmon...

An appellate court upheld a $2 million jury verdict against a pulp and paper mill for the impact its discharges into Pigeon River, North Carolina, had on property owners. The lower court did not err in certifying the lawsuit as a class action. Common issues of law and fact predominate, and the uniqu...

A district court denied the U.S. motion to dismiss residents' consolidated claims for damages stemming from the devastating flooding that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The residents argued that the damage was the foreseeable consequence of at least two defective conditions known b...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court order directing a town to set aside its issuance of a permit to Steve Jobs—co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple—to demolish a historic mansion so he could construct a smaller-single family residence. The town council found that the pro...