The Fifth Circuit rejected an environmental group's challenge to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's (LDEQ's) decision to issue preconstruction permits for a liquefied natural gas export facility in Cameron Parish. The group sought to have LDEQ's decision vacated, arguing the facilit...

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the Takings Clause does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land use permit conditions, in a lawsuit concerning a traffic impact fee as a condition of building a prefabricated home on a parcel of land. The landowner challenged the fee a...

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that Texas property owners should be permitted to pursue claims under the Takings Clause through an inverse-condemnation cause of action available under Texas law. Over 120 property owners argued that a Texas highway elevation and expansion project, which buil...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's 2022 decision to reinstate a prior waiver of federal preemption of two California regulations concerning automobile emissions under the CAA. States and fossil fuel groups challenged the regulations—a standard limiting greenhouse gas emissions and a requirement that a ...

The D.C. Circuit, 2-1, granted in part and denied in part petitions to review EPA's SIP call for 35 states and the District of Columbia. A group of about half these states as well as companies subject to those SIPs sued, arguing EPA misinterpreted its authority under the CAA when it called for SIPs ...

A district court denied a mining company's motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning pollution from the company's British Columbia smelter along the Upper Columbia River. Tribal members sought natural resource damages for contamination of the river. The company argued the members' ...

A district court granted DOE's motion to dismiss a lawsuit over the social and economic impacts of storing spent nuclear fuel at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Butte County argued DOE should have determined the social and economic impacts of storing the materials at INL because they were there pur...

The Fourth Circuit reversed a district court order abstaining from ruling on constitutional claims brought by mineral interest owners challenging amendments to West Virginia's oil and gas conservation law. Plaintiffs argued the amendments, which for the first time authorized "unitization of interest...

A district court dismissed a RCRA citizen suit over a closure plan for a coal-fired power plant in Alabama. An environmental group challenged the plan, arguing it was unlawful to permanently store over 21 million tons of coal ash and toxic pollutants in the existing unlined impoundment, situated in ...

The Eighth Circuit reversed a district court ruling in a challenge to Iowa's "ag gag" law that criminalizes undercover investigations at agricultural production facilities. Initially, the law prohibited the facilities from being accessed under false pretenses as well as prohibited false statements o...