A district court granted the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) motion to preliminarily enjoin a proposed joint venture between the United States' two largest coal producers. The Commission challenged the joint venture on antitrust grounds, arguing that it violated §7 of the Clayton Act and §5 of ...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, a ruling in a lawsuit concerning the Trump Administration's use of military construction funds to build portions of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. States and an environmental group challenged the Administration's authority to divert funds appropriated fo...
The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's dismissal of a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department's presence on ...
A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a lawsuit concerning an advisory committee on hunting chartered by DOI under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Nonprofit groups argued that the Department failed to properly charter the committee, failed to balance its membership t...
A district court held that William Perry Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director of BLM. The governor of Montana and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation argued that Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director in violation of the Appointments Clause, t...
As companies increase their environmental, social, governance (ESG) reporting and statements in response to market and shareholder demands, plaintiffs have pursued with growing success legal challenges to company claims and disclosures related to ESG performance. Similarly, inventive theories are being put forward to directly attack companies for alleged ESG-related performance and operational deficiencies. In both arenas, there has been a recent growth in efforts to hold companies accountable for supplier misconduct.
This October Term, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in on three and possibly all four of its pending original jurisdiction controversies over interstate waters. The Court’s past judgments and opinions have established little in the way of “federal common law” governing the states’ interests in shared waters. But they have established this much: these interests vest in states-as-states directly under the U.S. Constitution, even if the Court itself is reluctant to specify the interests with much precision or to enjoin violations thereof.
International environmental law (IEL) has developed widely since the first global meeting in Stockholm in 1972. Accounts estimate that there are more than 500 multilateral environmental treaties (MEAs). However, the predicted future shows that current global environmental policy efforts are undeniably insufficient. IEL’s prevailing anthropocentric ethic has directly contributed to the crisis, suppressing the symptoms rather than treating them.
Over the past 50 years, tremendous progress has been made in reducing air pollution under the Clean Air Act. Nevertheless, while air quality has improved greatly for much of the nation, there are still places where the goal of attaining national standards has still not been reached. This is often true in urban locations that are affected by multiple pollution sources; typically, these areas are also environmental justice communities. Recent events have called attention to the urgent need for concrete action to address the many problems of these communities.
With a contentious presidential election looming amidst a pandemic, economic worries, and historic protests against systemic racism, climate action may seem less pressing than other challenges. Nothing could be further from the truth.