The court invalidates a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regulation exempting mines on public lands in Alaska of less than five acres from environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). In 1980, BLM promulgated...

The court holds that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) vertical and horizontal spread (VHS) model, used to predict the probable contamination levels of hazardous substances under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, constitutes a rule requiring public notice and comment under the ...

The court holds that the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) 1985 notice of proposed rulemaking in which the FDA proposed to continue to allow the use of methylene chloride, a carcinogen, for the decaffeination of coffee is not a final action subject to judicial review. In its notice, the FDA pro...

The court upholds requirements in the national contingency plan (NCP) that private claims for reimbursement of response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) must be preauthorized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and can only be ma...

In a 5-3 decision, the Court rules that state ownership of lands subject to the public trust doctrine includes nonnavigable tidal lands. Petitioners brought a quiet title action to prevent Mississippi from issuing oil and gas leases for lands several miles north of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Although...

The court holds that the Secretary of the Army had authority under the Gateway National Recreation Act to transfer to the Navy, rather than to the Department of the Interior (Interior), certain land located within the boundaries of the Gateway National Recreation Area in and around New York Harbor. ...

The court holds unripe a suit seeking a declaratory judgment that any liability a debtor might have had under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was discharged by the firm's declaration of bankruptcy. The court first holds that the Environmental Protec...

The court holds that the scope of review for a challenge to the Bureau of Reclamation's environmental impact statement (ELS) on a Central Arizona Project (CAP) aqueduct is limited to the administrative record, and the EIS is sufficient. The court first holds that the administrative record was fully ...

The court holds that an aluminum plant that turns off its wet scrubbers thereby becomes a modified stationary source within the meaning of Clean Air Act (CAA) §111(a)(4), subject to the new source performance standards (NSPS) promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursuant to CAA ...

The court generally upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) amended regulations issued pursuant to Clean Air Act §123 governing pollution control credit for tall smokestacks. The regulations establish the credit that sources receive toward compliance with local air quality standards f...