The court reverses a district court decision that environmental groups failed to establish both standing and ripeness in their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) challenges to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule defining the new national forest managem...

The court holds that a district court erroneously granted a four-level downward departure in the sentencing of an individual for improperly discharging a pollutant into navigable waters and causing an employee to falsify test results to the government. The district court erred in failing to give not...

The court vacates and remands a trial court holding that increased stormwater drainage from the construction of a U.S. Postal Service facility in West Virginia did not constitute a taking of a neighboring mall owner's property. The trial court held that no taking occurred because the owner failed to...

The court reverses and remands a district court's approval of a final environmental impact statement (EIS) that failed to discuss and respond to seven scientific studies casting doubt on the U.S. Forest Service's conclusion that northern goshawks are habitat generalists. In response to the Forest Se...

The court largely upholds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) determination that Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) does not apply to recycled materials used to make zinc fertilizers, or to the resulting fertilizers themselves, so long as they meet certain...

The court holds that the no surprises rule, which provides regulatory assurances to holders of incidental take permits (ITPs) issued under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that they will not be required to commit funds or resources beyond those contemplated at the time the permit was issued to mitig...

The Ninth Circuit holds that a district court erred in holding that residents living across from a county dump lacked standing to bring Clean Air Act (CAA) claims based on ozone degradation against a county health department and in granting the county summary judgment on the residents' Resource Cons...

The court holds that it lacked jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) decision denying environmental groups' request that the licensing of two nuclear power plants in New York be conditioned on several safety-related changes in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist att...

The court holds that a local transportation control measure, adopted as part of California's state implementation plan to attain federal air quality standards in the San Francisco Bay Area, does not impose an enforceable obligation on the local transportation commission to increase public transit ri...

The court holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') denial of an incidental take permit authorizing logging on 40 acres of protected owl habitat was neither a physical nor a regulatory taking. Contrary to the lower court's decision, the landowners' claim is ripe. Although the FWS invite...