A district court dismissed environmental groups’ challenge to the International Development Finance Corp’s (DFC’s) 2020 rule exempting itself from the Sunshine Act. The groups challenged the rule under the APA and the Sunshine Act itself, and sought an order declaring the DFC subject to the Su...
A district court dismissed as moot a lawsuit seeking to reinstate a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline to cross the U.S.-Canada border. Twenty-three states challenged the president's authority to revoke the permit, arguing the permitting decision concerned only international and interstate comm...
The First Circuit affirmed the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's (MDEP's) decision to issue an air permit for a natural gas compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Neighboring cities and individuals argued MDEP failed to follow its own established procedures by eliminatin...
A district court granted summary judgment for the Bureau of Reclamation in a FOIA lawsuit brought by a company seeking summaries of certain water transfers. The company requested a summary of transfers taking place in 2020 under the Bureau's and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority's Long-Te...
The Second Circuit reversed in part and vacated in part a district court ruling that ordered EPA to disclose records pursuant to a FOIA request related to a former Agency official's role in pesticide policymaking. An environmental group submitted FOIA requests for the records, and EPA invoked the de...
A district court granted in part and denied in part NMFS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit seeking an expansion of the Service's 2008 Vessel Speed Rule to protect North Atlantic right whales. Conservation groups argued NMFS had unreasonably delayed its response to the groups' 2012 and 2020 petitions to e...
The Court of Federal Claims entered judgment for the U.S. government in a takings challenge against FWS for rerouting spring waters that had previously flowed through church property into a restoration channel in an effort to save a native fish species. The church argued the berm FWS installed upstr...
A district court granted researchers' and primate importers' motions to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit group seeking FOIA disclosure of FWS records regarding the import and export of wildlife. The group challenged the Service's redaction of certain information pursuant to a FOIA exemp...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by Catholic nuns seeking monetary damages for property taken by the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline. The nuns argued that construction and operation of the pipeline through land they owned would violate their free exercise of religion protected by t...
The Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition to review EPA's final rule approving California's SIP for meeting the air quality standard for ozone in the San Joaquin Valley. An environmental group argued the SIP's contingency measure was inadequate because it provided only a nomina...