Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic v. Bureau of Land Management
A district court denied environmental groups' motions to enjoin an oil company from undertaking construction this winter on an oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. One group argued BLM violated the ESA by inappropriately relying on uncertain Marine Mammal Protection Act miti...
United States v. Walker River Irrigation District
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a district court's dismissal of a county's complaint in long-standing litigation over appropriation of water in the Walker River Basin. The county argued the public interest and maintenance of the public trust required that water flows reach Wal...
Montana Environmental Information Center v. Bernhardt
A district court denied a motion for preliminary injunction in a challenge to DOI's approval of a mine expansion in Montana. Conservation groups argued the Department's EIS failed to sufficiently consider the cumulative impacts of mining on local water resources, failed to consider a reasonable rang...
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court order vacating a Mineral Leasing Act easement issued by the Army Corps of Engineers for the Dakota Access Pipeline and directing the pipeline to be shut down. Native American tribes argued the Corps' issuance of the easement withou...