A district court granted in part and denied in part FWS' motion to dismiss a challenge to the Service's failure to comply with deadlines for listing species as threatened or endangered and for designating critical habitats for them. An environmental group sought to compel FWS to make 12-month findin...

A district court granted summary judgment for DOI in a federally recognized tribe's challenge to the agency's refusal to take land into trust for a casino. The tribe argued DOI misinterpreted the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act (Michigan Act), and that its refusal violated the APA. The co...

A district court denied the Army Corps of Engineers' motion to dismiss an ESA citizen suit alleging the Corps' operation of a dam in California was unlawfully taking protected salmon species. An individual argued the Corps violated the ESA by jeopardizing salmon populations with the dam's flood cont...

A district court denied a mining company's motion to dismiss an Indian tribe's challenge to a land exchange between the company and the Forest Service. The tribe argued that the land exchange implicated its sovereign interests, including a right under an 1854 treaty to use the land for hunting, fish...

A district court dismissed a challenge to the Michigan Public Service Commission's 2017 and 2018 orders requiring electricity suppliers to buy energy from local sources. Industry groups argued the local clearing requirement violated the dormant Commerce Clause. The court concluded the requirement di...

A district court denied an animal advocacy group's and individuals' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the National Park Service's (NPS') management of the tule elk population in the Tomales Point area of Point Reyes National Seashore. The plaintiffs argued NPS' failure to timely revise i...

The Fifth Circuit reversed summary judgment for NOAA and NMFS in a challenge to the agencies' rule requiring charter boat owners to install NMFS-approved vessel monitoring systems (VMSs) to track the vessels' GPS locations. Charter boat captains argued the rule's tracking requirement exceeded the au...

The Tenth Circuit dismissed a petition to review NRC's grant of a temporary license for spent nuclear fuel storage near the New Mexico border. New Mexico argued NRC violated NEPA and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and acted ultra vires in granting the license. NRC moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdi...