The D.C. Circuit upheld USDA regulations mandating the disclosure of country-of-origin information about meat products. A group of trade associations representing livestock producers, feedlot operators, and meat packers claimed that the rule violated their First Amendment rights because the mandate ...
New York's highest court held that local governments may ban oil and gas production activities, including hydraulic fracturing, through the adoption of local zoning laws. The case arose after two towns enacted zoning laws banning hydraulic fracturing within their jurisdictions. A private gas company...
A district court upheld National Park Service (NPS) regulations restricting off-road vehicle (ORV) use in North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore at certain times of the year. Petitioners argued the rule was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance w...
The Supreme Court of Texas held that an oil and gas company may use a road on landowner's property to access its underground mineral rights. The company held an interest oil and gas rights under the landowners' property in addition to several adjoining tracts. In 2000, it pooled the tracts, thereby ...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying environmental groups’ motion to preliminarily enjoin a logging project in the Whitman-Wallowa National Forest in northeast Oregon. The lower court held that the groups were not likely to succeed on any of their ...
The Ninth Circuit, following a reversal and remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, held that a USDA marketing order under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 requiring raisin producers to participate in a raisin reserve program does not violate the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against tak...
The D.C. Circuit affirmed the U.S. Forest Service's decision denying an emergency petition filed by an environmental group seeking “roadless” designation for roughly 1,000 acres on Burnt Mountain in Colorado's Snowmass ski area and suspension of the Aspen Skiing Company’s authorization to cut ...
The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision rejecting the claims of San Juan County and the state of Utah to a public right-of-way, called Salt Creek Road, in Canyonlands National Park. The state and county wish to use their claimed right-of-way to prevent the United States from closing the Salt...
A district court upheld the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's latest land use and development plan for the Lake Tahoe Area Basin, located along the California and Nevada border. The updated plan, issued in 2012, includes the agency's adoption of a regional transportation plan and the incorporation of...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision invalidating a 2003 USDA regulation that temporarily exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. USDA clearly acknowledged that its 2003 record of decision, which excluded the Tongass from the Roadless Rul...