A district court upheld the FWS' "warranted-but-precluded" finding for the sage-grouse under the ESA. An environmental group challenged the “precluded” portion of the “warranted-but-precluded” decision, focusing on a key finding by the Director of the FWS that the threats to the sage-grouse ...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion for reconsideration and overturned its previous decision upholding the DOI's "Counterpart ESA §7 Consultation Regulations" for National Fire Plan (NFP) projects. The government's rationale for proposing the rule in the first instance was ...

A New York trial court held that the state environmental agency's general permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) violates the CWA and state law. By allowing discharges based on an applicant's notice of intent (NOI) to discharge, the permitting scheme c...

A district court held that a mining company is liable for discharging arsenic and iron into a nearby creek in violation of its NPDES permit. The company did not deny or admit that it is in violation of its permit. Instead, it argued that the environmental group that filed suit against it lacked ...

A district court held that oil and gas companies should not be criminally charged under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for the death of migratory birds found in North Dakota oil fields. The MBTA, as broadly interpreted by the U.S. government, offers unlimited potential for criminal prosec...