The Fifth Circuit held that DOI's ban on owning bald eagle feathers under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). DOI's implementation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act prohibits American Indians who are not members of federally recog...

The D.C. Circuit denied residents' petitions for review challenging FERC's approval of a new natural gas compressor station in their town. Although the project is now finished and functional, the petitions are not moot because the residents assert that the compressor's operation continues to harm th...

A district court upheld FWS' designation of 1,544 acres of a privately owned tree farm in Louisiana as critical habitat essential for the conservation of the dusky gopher frog, an endangered species. The frog, listed in 2001, is located only in Mississippi; it does not presently occupy the tree farm...

The Sixth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, upheld the dismissal of claims that FHwA violated NEPA when it approved a $2.6 billion construction and transportation management project designed to improve mobility across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky. Despite a nonprofit group's arguments to...

The Ninth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review a U.S. Coast Guard letter to FERC concerning the suitability of the Columbia River for vessel traffic associated with a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and pipeline. The letter of recommendation stated that although the river...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision that FHwA and North Carolina complied with NEPA in their approval of a bridge and highway improvement project between the mainland and the Outer Banks barrier islands, but reversed that court's determination that the defendants were exempt from co...