The court holds that environmental groups have standing to bring suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for failing to redesignate critical habitat for the spikedace and loach minnow even though the groups' members cannot see and are unable to distinguish the fish in their natural ha...

The court affirms a district court dismissal of a property owner's 42 U.S.C. §1983 suit, which alleged a New Hampshire town effectuated an uncompensated taking of the owner's property, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Before seeking relief in federal court, the owner initiated two lawsuits ...

The court denied gas producers' petition to review two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rulings concerning the producers' obligation to repay taxes improperly collected under Natural Gas Production Act (NGPA) §110, but remanded FERC's determination as to the starting date of the obligati...

The court holds that a consent decree entered in federal court between the city of Lodi, California, and the primary insurer of a dissolved California corporation that polluted the city's groundwater does not preclude the city from bringing suit in state court to reach the corporation's other insura...

The court dismisses as unripe mining associations' claim that the U.S. Forest Service arbitrarily and capriciously designated land straddling the Hoosier Ridge in Colorado as a research natural area (RNA). The court first holds that the mining associations' claim is not fit for judicial review. Alth...

The court holds that the Alaska mining commissioner permissibly nullified the mining rights acquired by a mining claims locator on state-selected federal lands. The court first holds that the commissioner did not err in finding that the locator was not qualified to conduct business in Alaska and, th...

The court holds that because a land developer failed to receive an appealable final decision on its wetlands development permit application, the developer's takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not ripe and must be dismissed as premature. The Corps, after receiving the developer...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction to review an underground natural gas storage facility's injunctive and declaratory relief action challenging a state environmental agency's permit modification requirements. The facility sought to increase its storage capacity by including natural gas throu...

The court reverses a district court summary judgment decision that ordered the owners of unpatented mill site claims in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona to remove themselves and all their things from the sites and to restore the sites to their natural condition. The government sought to evict th...

The court holds that a timber association lacks standing under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's promulgation of an interim final rule that suspends road construction decisionmaking for 18 months in certa...