United Cook Inlet Drift Ass'n v. National Marine Fisheries Service
The Ninth Circuit held that NMFS violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act when it excluded an historic net-fishing area of Cook Inlet from the salmon fishery management plan (FMP). The Magnuson-Stevens Act unambiguously requires a regional fishery management council to c...
Red Wolf Coalition v. United States Fish & Wildlife
A district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining FWS from conducting or authorizing the take of wild red wolves on private land without first demonstrating that the wolf at issue is a threat to humans, pets, or livestock. Animal rights groups argued that prior to 2014, FWS interpreted its ...
New England Anti-Vivisection Society v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service
A district court held that animal rights groups lack standing to challenge FWS' decision to allow the National Primate Research Center to transfer eight of its chimpanzees to a zoo in the United Kingdom. FWS authorized the transfer under ESA §10 on the condition that the Center donate money to an u...
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Inc. v. McCarthy
A district court held that environmental groups have standing to sue EPA under the APA and CWA for its failure to disapprove West Virginia's §303(d) list, which lacks TMDLs for waterbodies previously identified as "biologically impaired." The groups' members use some, but not all, impaired waterbod...
Tennessee Clean Water Network v. Tennessee Valley Authority
A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with some, but not all, of their CWA claims against TVA concerning coal ash contamination stemming from a coal-fired power plant near Gallatin, Tennessee. The groups allege that TVA knew that the ash ponds' construction and the area's to...