The Fifth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, a lower court ruling in favor of fishermen's challenge to NMFS regulations regarding offshore aquaculture in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The fishermen argued that the regulations were invalid because they fell outside the agency's authority to regulate fish...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a commercial logging and road construction project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The groups argued that the Forest Service violated the ESA by failing to request a species list from FWS and failing to prepare a b...

A district court granted in part summary judgment for nonprofit groups in a suit concerning a logging project in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. One group argued the project violated the Roadless Rule because the Forest Service was surreptitiously planning to construct new roads in an in...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a district court order remanding to FWS several issues concerning its 2017 rule removing ESA protections for the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population. The district court held that FWS failed to adequately consider the impact of delisting...

A district court denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin grizzly bear killings in connection with a 2019 biological opinion and incidental take statement issued by FWS that allow for their lethal removal in Bridger-Teton National Forest as a result of conflict with livestock. Conservation groups arg...

A district court vacated an incidental take permit issued by FWS for a transmission line project on a historic section of the Oregon and California Trail in Nebraska. Companies and conservation groups argued that FWS' decision to issue the permit, which allowed for the incidental taking of American ...

The D.C. Circuit upheld FWS' withdrawal of prior findings for elephant trophy hunting in southern Africa. Conservation groups argued that FWS violated the APA by withdrawing its prior findings without providing notice and comment. The court found that a notice-and-comment period was not required for...

A district court denied a Native American tribe's request to lift a stay in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation seeking to protect endangered coho salmon from the impacts of an irrigation project in the Klamath River Basin. The tribe asserted that the Bureau failed to comply with the terms o...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed a challenge to FWS' constitutional authority to regulate activities affecting the Bone Cave harvestman, a small arachnid known to live only in caves in central Texas that is currently listed as endangered under the ESA. A county and an individual, intervening plaintiffs i...

A district court denied FWS' and NMFS' motion to dismiss a challenge to the agencies' issuance of rules that revised key requirements of the ESA's implementing regulations. States and conservation groups argued that the agencies exceeded their statutory authority in issuing the rules in violation of...