The court denies a private-property owner injunctive relief on its claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and EPA employees violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when an EPA emergency response team entered onto the property without a warrant and removed water and ...

The court upholds Nevada county ordinances requiring landowners either to subscribe to a particular garbage collection service or to haul their garbage to an approved disposal site every seven days. The ordinances also required all landowners that cannot prove that they properly disposed of their ow...

The court reverses a district court opinion that the stare decisis effect of a decision by a federal district court in Washington State bars appellants' current challenge to the president's 1994 forest plan. The court holds that stare decisis does not require a district court in one circuit to follo...

The Court holds that a landowner's takings claim against a regional planning agency is ripe for adjudication. The agency determined that the landowner may not develop her property but is entitled to transferable development rights (TDRs). The Court first notes that its discussion is confined to whet...

The court holds that a district court erroneously dismissed a nondiverse defendant as fraudulently joined in an action based on oil companies' alleged contamination of Mississippi property with naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). The court first holds that a party removing an action to ...

The court holds that a district court properly dismissed a class action brought by Peruvian citizens alleging injuries from a U.S. corporation's copper smelting and refining operations in Peru. The court first holds that the district court had federal question jurisdiction because the complaint rais...

The court holds that a town may recover under the New Jersey Sanitary Landfill Facility Closure and Contingency Fund Act costs it incurred cleaning up contamination from a closed landfill on property that it bought before passage of the Act. The court holds that the town is not an "owner" of the lan...

The court holds that a Minnesota waste management statute that requires public entities to comply with county waste management plans does not violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by barring the importation of waste processing services. Minnesota statute §115A.46 requires public enti...

The court holds that a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) defendant is not entitled to access to materials from an earlier grand jury proceeding conducted by the judge presiding over the CERCLA trial. The court first holds that defendant does not need the ...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal of a district court's refusal to hold a pre-indictment hearing to determine if the government improperly used compelled employee statements in a grand jury proceeding regarding an explosion at a rocket-fuel manufacturing facilit...