The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Auer doctrine, deferring to the Department of Veterans Affairs' interpretation of an ambiguous regulation in a lawsuit concerning disability benefits. A veteran challenged the lower court's application of the doctrine, arguing that the APA's judicial review provisio...

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated a dismissal of a landowner's challenge to a town ordinance on takings grounds. The landowner argued the ordinance, which requires cemeteries on public and private property to be kept open and accessible to the public during daylight hours, effected a taking of her prop...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a dismissal of landowners' lawsuit against the government for flooding that resulted when a federal land conservation program induced an adjacent landowner to build and maintain a levee. The landowners argued that the flooding, which rendered their land unfit for cultiva...

A federal district court granted the city of Baltimore's motion to remand to state court its climate change case against oil companies. The city alleged it sustained climate change-related injuries from greenhouse gas pollution to which the companies had substantially contributed. The companies argu...

A state high court held that a borough council was allowed to consider residents' testimony regarding firsthand experiences with a natural gas extraction company's hydraulic fracturing facility in a neighboring township in a hearing on the company's conditional use application to construct and opera...

A state high court affirmed a lower court denial of landowners' and an environmental group's petition to review a decision by the Iowa Utilities Board authorizing a company to use eminent domain to build a crude oil pipeline. The landowners and group argued the pipeline did not serve the "public con...

A district court granted California's and New Mexico's motion for summary judgment in an APA challenge to DOI's repeal of the Valuation Rule and its restoration of prior regulations governing payment of royalties on oil, gas, and coal extracted pursuant to leases of federal and Indian lands. The cou...

A district court dismissed for lack of standing an environmental group's challenge to an EPA directive that prohibited scientists in receipt of certain EPA grants from serving on the Agency's federal advisory committees. The group argued the directive was arbitrary and capricious because the Agency ...

A district court dismissed a nonprofit group's challenge to an EPA directive that prohibited scientists in receipt of certain EPA grants from serving on the Agency's federal advisory committees. The group argued that the directive violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirement that c...

A district court granted federal and state transportation agencies' motion to dismiss a nonprofit group's challenge to a light rail project, known as the Purple Line project, that would connect suburban Maryland commuters to existing transit stations that connect to Washington, D.C. The group argued...