The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) preempts a citizens group's private state-law nuisance action against a contractor hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remediate a Superfund site. The court first holds that...

The court holds that a city violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) by discharging sludge from its wastewater treatment facility without an operating permit. The court first holds that a state constitutional provision cannot excuse the city's operation of its water treatment facilit...

The court affirms a district court's grant of summary judgment on several state-law tort claims in favor of pesticide companies whose products allegedly caused a newborn's multiple birth defects. The district court granted summary judgment because the evidence showed that the product at issue had no...

The court holds that the passage of the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), which requires single-hulled oil tankers to be retrofitted with double hulls or be phased out of service, did not effect a taking of shipping companies' oil tankers. The court first holds that when the companies built or acquired the v...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court order enjoining the future planting of disputed genetically engineered alfalfa seed pending the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's completion of an enivironmental impact statement. The district court applied the traditional balancing test, and no...

A district court set aside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') decision not to designate critical habitat or to prepare a recovery plan for the jaguar. The FWS' critical habitat designation determination was not based on the best scientific evidence available and was inconsistent with the st...

The court holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') decision not to designate critical habitat for the stickleback is not arbitrary and capricious, and that the FWS is not required to ensure compliance with federal and state laws before issuing an incidental take statement to a company ...

The court rejects landowners' request for a declaratory judgment challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') determination that their land could not legally be used for goose hunting. FWS regulations prohibit the taking of migratory birds by the aid of baiting or on or over any baited ar...

The court holds that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and its implementing regulations do not preempt Arkansas regulations governing captive-reared mallard ducks. Captive-bred ducks do not fall within the MBTA's scope of federal permitting requirements, and nothing in the MBTA prohibits a state ...

The court affirmed a lower court decision denying a motion for preliminary injunction that would require the protection of mute swans under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Act, which implements the migratory bird conventions, makes it unlawful to hunt or kill migratory birds native to the United ...