The Seventh Circuit reversed the denial of transmission companies' motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the Wisconsin Public Service Commission's approval of a $500 million electricity transmission line in southwestern Wisconsin. Environmental groups challenged the approval on constitutional...
The Fourth Circuit dismissed a petition to vacate or set aside the FAA's modification to a series of flight routes that caused residents of historic areas of a county in Maryland to endure "insufferable levels of noise." The county argued that the FAA failed to comply with environmental statutes and...
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that denied city and state officials' motions to dismiss residents' bodily integrity claim stemming from the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. City officials argued they were entitled to qualified immunity because they acted on professi...
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to sugarcane producers' annual burning of sugarcane fields. Nearby landowners argued that the burning has led to a diminution of their property values and that they have suffered and continue to suffer damage to their property, unnecessary ...
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a lawsuit challenging the Executive Order that requires agencies to repeal two existing rules for each new rule promulgated. California, Minnesota, and Oregon argued that the order delayed or resulted in the undertaking of four rulemakings and that the...
The Trump Administration has aggressively rolled back prior administrations’ environmental regulations and natural resource policies, and critics of this agenda have turned to the judiciary. A remarkable string of federal court decisions has faulted the Administration for failing to follow the standard for agency policy change articulated in Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc.
A district court held invalid an amendment to the city of Toledo's charter that gave legal rights to Lake Erie. A local family farm argued the amendment was unconstitutionally vague and thus that it should be invalidated. The court found that the environmental rights of the lake and its watershed to...
The Fourth Circuit upheld a district court order that remanded to state court the city of Baltimore's climate change case against oil companies. The city alleged it sustained climate change-related injuries, including an increase in sea levels, storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, and extreme precip...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed as untimely Maryland's petition to review the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) approval of new flight paths to Washington National Airport. The state argued the new flight paths, which concentrated aircraft noise over its public lands, should be vacated because th...
The Fifth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not waived its sovereign immunity from Louisiana's lawsuit alleging that the Corps failed to maintain the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway within authorized parameters under the River and Harbor Improvements Act (RHIA). Louisiana argued that...