The Vieux Carre Ordinance, which requires a permit for demolition or construction within the historic French Quarter of New Orleans in order to preserve the area's unique architectural and historical value, reasonably serves valid social, cultural and environmental purposes and thus falls within the...
A lower court erred in dismissing property owners' Fourteenth Amendment claim for damages against a county for deprivation of property without just compensation through the operation of a nearby airport. Although the district court could rightly abstain from deciding the merits while plaintiffs purs...
Approval by the Department of Housing and Urban Development of a Statement of Record and Property Report under the Interstate Land Sales Act, a prerequisite to the sale of 50 or more lots in interstate commerce, constitutes major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human enviro...
The court has jurisdiction under §7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to hear a suit seeking to halt construction of an interstate highway through the habitat of the Mississippi Sandhill Crane, but rules that the plaintiffs are not entitled to the requested relief. The crane is an endangered sp...
The district court erred in dismissing a suit challenging both the EPA Administrator's initial listing of only nine toxic pollutants pursuant to §307 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 and the criteria he employed for the inclusion of pollutants on the list. The lower cou...
The injection of organic chemical wastes into subsurface wells whose waters are not alleged to flow into or otherwise affect surface waters does not constitute a "discharge of a pollutant" within the meaning of §301(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. The legislative h...
A complaint seeking to collect civil money penalties for alleged water pollution discharges in violation of an NPDES permit and an EPA order is dismissed with leave to amend. Section 309(d) of Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments does not provide for a fine of $10,000 per day for each sepa...
Interior Department regulations imposing summer-season weekend restrictions on commercial fishing at portions of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore are remanded to the agency for further proceedings concerning, inter alia, the impact of the regulation on the cultural heritage of affected fishermen....
This unanimous en banc opinion on the merits follows the court of appeals' temporary opinion, 4 ELR 20598, on its stay of the district court's injunction, 4 ELR 20573, which had ordered Reserve to cease any further discharge of asbestos-bearing taconite wastes into Lake Superior from its plant at Si...
The EPA Administrator neither misinterpreted congressional intent nor violated the Constitution in making the enforcement penalties of §113 of the Clean Air Act applicable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for any failure by it to implement the Philadelphia Transportation Plan. Although §113 may...