The California Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that a developer's proposal to demolish an existing home and build a 10,000 square-foot single-family home on the lot may not be categorically exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). After th...

A California court held that federal mining law preempts a state law that effectively bans the use of any vacuum or suction dredge mining in streams and rivers on federal lands. Under Cal. Fish & Game Code §5653, the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment by any person in any river strea...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's denial of a petition filed by 101 environmental groups asking the Agency to regulate spent lead bullets and shot under TSCA. EPA rejected the petition as “non-cognizable” under TSCA §21 on the grounds that it largely duplicated an earlier petition that two of the 1...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part a lower court decision granting a Utah county rights-of-way over 12 roads that cross federal lands. The county sought to quiet title to 15 roads or road segments under the Quiet Title Act. The county asserted rights-of-way under §...

The Ohio Supreme Court held that a mineral rights owner may be able to strip mine portions of a state wildlife area. The state and the mineral rights owner entered a contract granting the owner “all mineral rights, including rights of ingress and egress and reasonable surface right privileges.” ...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a Native American tribe's claim that DOI violated the APA in refusing to approve the tribe’s assignments of land to certain of its members. The tribe submitted the land assignment deeds to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for approval ...