The court rules that §526 of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) requires the recipient of a cessation order to exhaust administrative remedies before pursuing a judicial one. Appellee Mullins Coal, who was issued a cessation order requiring it to cease mining operations after it...
The court holds that state administrative enforcement actions do not preclude citizen enforcement suits under §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA). The court first holds that plaintiff Sloop Clearwater has shown the injury-in-fact to its members necessary to demonstrate standing ...
The court holds appellant steel company liable for penalties stipulated in a Clean Air Act consent decree, which appellant violated while unsuccessfully seeking approval for an alternative compliance scheme under the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) emissions trading (bubble) policy. The co...
The court upholds a permanent injunction against the Forest Service's plans to construct the last six miles of a logging road and to permit timber harvesting in the Blue Creek Unit of the Six Rivers National Forest in California because the projects would violate the Indian plaintiffs' First Amendme...
The court holds that Ohio has standing to challenge a Department of Transportation (DOT) statement of policy pursuant to the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA) providing that state laws requiring prenotification of shipments of nuclear materials are preempted by federal routing regulation...
The court holds that the Animal Lovers Volunteer Association (ALVA) lacks standing to maintain a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) suit challenging the Navy's San Clemente Island, California, goat eradication program. To have standing, a party must be able to demonstrate "injury-in-fact" aris...
The Court holds that §3(c)(1)(D)(ii) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), providing for binding arbitration to determine the amount of compensation required for a follow-on applicant's use of an original registrant's data, does not violate Article III by limiting judi...
The court holds that water users and managers have standing to challenge the Water Resources Council's (WRC's) repeal of planning regulations and adoption of nonbinding guidelines under the Water Resources Planning Act (WRPA), and that the action is both subject to review under the Administrative Pr...
The court holds that the Secretary of Energy's designation under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of two locations in the Texas panhandle as "potentially acceptable sites" for nuclear waste repositories is neither final under the Act nor ripe for judicial review. The statutory scheme of the NWPA ...
The court holds that the Secretary of the Interior improperly deleted split-estate lands from classification as Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) under §603 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) and must manage permanently deleted holdings of less than 5,000 acres under an Interim Manag...