The court vacates and remands a six-level sentencing enhancement imposed against the operator of a foreign vessel for failing to keep an accurate "oil record book" in violation of §1908(a) of the Act to Prevent Pollution From Ships, part of legislation implementing MARPOL 73/78. The operator ma...

The court affirms the dismissal of animal defense organizations' action challenging the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM’s) strategy to achieve an appropriate management level for national wild horse and burro populations on public lands under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The c...

The court upholds the dismissal of military veterans' claims that they were denied meaningful access to administrative proceedings before the Department of Veterans Affairs to pursue compensation for their alleged exposure to dangerous levels of atomic radiation while members of the U.S. armed force...

A California appellate court upholds the dismissal of property owners' claims against a reclamation district for property damage caused by breached levees. The owners' takings claims fail because under California law, the defective maintenance of flood control or water retention systems does not pro...

A California appellate court affirms, with modifications, a lower court's reversal of the state forestry agency's timber harvest plan for a 13-acre parcel of land in Sonoma County. Contrary to the lower court's findings, there is substantial evidence to support the state agency's ultimate finding re...

The court dismisses as moot a chemical association's challenge to California's pesticide registration laws. The association claimed that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts the state registration laws, but the lower court disagreed. While the association's appeal of that...

The court grants in part and denies in part numerous petitions for review of a series of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders relating to refunds stemming from the California energy crisis in 2000 and 2001. All of the transactions at issue that occurred within the California Power Exch...

The court holds that a lower court improperly dismissed as unripe environmental groups’ claims that the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it amended certain forest plans in the southern United States. The lower court erred in dismissing the case bec...

A district court issues a preliminary ruling that temporarily blocks the Bureau of Land Managment's (BLM's) plans to lease approximately 1.7 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil exploration. The lease concerns vast areas of sensitive wetlands surrounding Lake Teshekp...

A California appellate court holds that the state water board abuses its discretion in imposing certain restrictions on an irrigation district's permit to appropriate water within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed but not on appropriators whose rights are junior to those of the irrigator. T...