A district court granted in part and denied in part the United States' motion to dismiss citizen groups’ claims challenging the approval of certain quarterly oil and gas lease sales under, among other things, the APA, FLPMA, the Mineral Lands Leasing Act (MLLA), the National Forest Management ...

A district court denied environmental groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the use of genetically engineered sugar beets. On the likelihood of success on the merits, the court has already found that defendants, the USDA and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, viola...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that denied plaintiff’s petition for a writ of mandate directing a city to set aside its approval of a revised site plan for a commercial retail shopping center project. The petition claimed that the city violated the California Envi...

The Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of insurers in a breach of contract action related to the insurers’ refusal to defend a gas station in a class action filed against it for allegedly contaminating groundwater in a residential neighborhood. Ap...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that denied a writ of mandate seeking to set aside a cease-and-desist order entered by the California Coastal Commission (Commission) that prohibited a festival committee from discharging fireworks over the Gualala River estuary without fi...

The Supreme Court of Montana affirmed a lower court’s award of almost $41 million in damages to the state of Montana from a wholesale electric generator for its use of state-owned riverbeds at its hydroelectric generation facilities.  The court held that title to the riverbeds passed to M...

The Ninth Circuit vacated a lower court decision that granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the enforcement of California Penal Code §599f, which bans the slaughter and inhumane handling of nonambulatory animals, against federally regulated swine slaughterhouses. Plaintiff, a trade assoc...

A district court allowed negligence claims against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to continue in seven lawsuits stemming from a coal-ash spill, but it held that the TVA is not subject to punitive damages. Plaintiffs filed four class action complaints and four non-class action complaints seekin...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that held that the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (Board) had no authority to enforce state law governing waste discharge to several hydroelectric dams operating under a federal license. The United States Supreme Court, fo...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court order clarifying and enforcing a prior decision, which had defined the rights of parties interested in the production of groundwater from the Seaside Basin, by restricting a water management district’s authority to require environmental revie...