The court vacates a district court decision dismissing the United States' suit to quiet title to water rights in a portion of the Rio Grande River. The dispute centers around the Rio Grande Reclamation Project, and after several attempts to dismiss water adjudications in state court, the United Stat...
The court affirms a district court dismissal of a developer's taking claim against a city as unripe due to the developer's failure to exhaust his state court remedies. The developer received a permit to build a townhouse project, but the permit was subject to nine conditions. The developer claimed t...
The court denies an electric utility association's petition to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) interpretation of its state and federal operating permit program regulations. According to EPA, the regulations allow permit-issuing authorities to enhance the conditions included...
The court holds that farmers' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) action challenging a proposed federal and state plan for managing the California San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta) water resources is ripe for judicial review before any site-specific action is taken. The...
The Court of Federal Claims held that a livestock operator was collaterally estopped from litigating the issue of ownership to a right-of-way, thereby defeating its takings claim against the BLM for dismantling a water diversion structure on federal land and preventing the operator's access to the s...
A district court dismissed an Eskimo village's nuisance claim against 24 oil, energy, and utility companies for their alleged contribution to climate change. The village claimed that the companies are responsible for a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to clim...
The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing Mississippi residents' class action lawsuit against several energy, fossil fuel, and chemical companies for their alleged contribution to climate change. The residents argued that the companies intentionally and unreasonably used their pro...
The Sixth Circuit held that a group of residents lacked standing to challenge the TVA's implementation of a land management plan for a nearby reservoir under NEPA and the Tennessee Valley Authority Act. The residents failed to connect the procedural harm alleged in their complaint—the creation of ...
A district court issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the shipment of Hawaiian garbage to a landfill located on lands ceded by the Yakama Nation in Washington State near the Columbia River. There are serious questions as to whether the USDA adequately analyzed the environmental impacts of ...
The U.S. Supreme Court held that the statute of limitations governing the U.S. Court of Federal Claims requires sua sponte consideration of the timeliness of a lawsuit filed in that court, despite the government's waiver of the issue. The case involved a company's claims that various federal activit...