Reversing a lower court, the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Idaho Dredge and Placer Mining Protection Act as applied to upatented mining claims on federal land. The state sought to enjoin defendants' dredge mining operation in the St. Joe National Forest, which defendant co...

The court reverses a lower court's dismissal of a criminal indictment charging a wrecking company with violating an asbestos emission standard in the course of demolishing a building. The district court erred in determining that it had jurisdiction to review the validity of the standard in the conte...

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a lower court's order requiring the EPA Administrator to list lead as an air pollutant under §108(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act. Once a pollutant is listed under that section, the Administrator must establish ambient air quality standards for it and the stat...

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) must evaluate the environmental impacts of construction and operation of a privately financed magnesium plant in its NEPA impact statement for an electrical supply contract for the plant and construction of a transmission line to it. The Supreme Court's opin...

The D.C. Circuit partially affirms and partially reverses the lower court in a suit challenging Federal Highway Administration regulations concerning public hearings on federal-aid highway projects. In affirmance, the court holds, in a matter of first impression, that procedural regulations governin...

The Army Corps of Engineers failed to comply with the requirements of NEPA in connection with its issuance of a permit for construction of a power plant's cooling water discharge facility in navigable waters. The planned design includes erection of a concrete wall across a prime surfing site. The Co...

The court holds not guilty a yacht club charged under §403 of the Rivers and Harbors Act with illegally filling property which was flooded by abnormally high waters. The 66-acre parcel in question, adjacent to Lake St. Clair, had been separate from the lake until 1973, when peak flooding occurred a...

The court dismisses a claim that Georgia's Metropolitan River Protection Act is an unconstitutional taking of private property without just compensation as applied to construction of a tennis court. Plaintiff began constructing the tennis court within 150 feet of the Chattahoochee River in northwest...

A three-judge district court upholds the constitutionality of Montana's big game licensing procedures despite discrimination against nonresident hunters. Nonresident plaintiffs were required to pay a license fee 7.5 times greater than that of Montana residents in order to hunt elk in the state. Whil...

The court dismisses a complaint brought by owners of a shopping mall alleging that the Indiana State Highway Commission violated NEPA in connection with the long-planned construction of a highway bypass through the mall. The Commission planned to construct a 3.8-mile segment of the bypass, which con...