The court upholds a town conservation commission's denial under a local wetlands protection ordinance of a landowners' application to construct an access road over marshlands to a proposed residential subdivision. Plaintiffs claim, inter alia, that the denial constitutes an uncompensated taking of p...

The court issues a declaratory judgment resolving conflicting claims to the waters of the Williamson River by parties with interests in lands formerly part of or adjoining the Klamath Indian Reservation established by treaty in 1864. Although the reservation has now been terminated, members of the K...

The court declares unconstitutional an Hawaii statute prohibiting the sale of plastic beverage containers. On the basis of the parties' stipulation of facts, the court rules that the statute denies package manufacturers their rights to equal protection and due process, is unconstitutionally vague, a...

The court denies plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction suspending the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) designation of a transportation route for shipments of spent nuclear fuel through Portsmouth, Virginia. Plaintiffs had asserted that the designation of the transportation route (1)...

Reversing a criminal conviction, the court rules that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) does not give the Secretary of the Interior authority to promulgate conservation regulations governing offshore activities unrelated to mineral leases. Defendant, who damaged a coral reef while carryi...

In an action challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) revised primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards for ozone, the court grants a motion by industry petitioners to correct the administrative record by removing certain documents placed there after the EPA Admin...

The Nebraska Department of Roads sought a mandatory injunction requiring appellant to remove an outdoor advertising sign located near an interstate highway. The relevant state law, Nebraska Revised Statutes §§39-1320 et seq., makes it unlawful to place advertising signs along any interstate highwa...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a lower court's issuance of a permanent injunction against further filling of wetlands adjacent to a 3,000-acre intrastate freshwater lake without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers under §404 of the Clean Water Act. The Corps' regulations impleme...

The court affirms a lower court's ruling that the Secretary of the Interior has no discretion to reject on environmental grounds applications for preference right coal mining leases by prospecting permittees who have fulfilled the requirements of §201(b) of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. Section ...

In an oral opinion, the court upholds four municipal ordinances directed at regulating the noise level at the Santa Monica airport but overturns a ban against jet aircraft. The city of Santa Monica, owner and operator of the airport, enacted a night curfew at the airport, a weekend and holiday ban o...