A district court declared unconstitutional a California law that regulates the recording of conveyances of federal public lands in the state. DOJ argued that the state law, which grants the State Lands Commission the right of first refusal on transfers of federal public lands, runs afoul of the doct...

A district court upheld President Barack Obama's 2016 proclamation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the New England coast as a marine national monument. Commercial fishing associations argued that the monument exceeded the president's authority under the Antiquities Act because it lies ent...

A district court remanded the U.S. Forest Service's decision concerning the management of roads and trails in the Santa Fe National Forest. An environmental group argued that the agency should have considered the effects of forest management on the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander. The magistra...

The Fourth Circuit vacated both an incidental take statement issued by FWS and a right-of-way permit issued by the National Park Service (NPS) for construction of a natural gas pipeline that intersects the Blue Ridge Parkway. Environmental groups argued that the take limits set by FWS in its Inciden...

The Fourth Circuit vacated and remanded BLM's decision granting a right-of-way through federal land for construction of a pipeline and the U.S. Forest Service's decision to amend the Jefferson National Forest Land Resource Management Plan to accommodate the right-of-way and pipeline construction. En...

A district court granted in part and denied in part outdoor groups' motion for summary judgment seeking injunctive relief from the U.S. Forest Service's Travel Plan for the Bitterroot National Forest (Travel Plan), which prohibits motorized and bicycle travel in wilderness study areas (WSA) within t...

A Federal Claims court held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) temporarily took landowners' property without just compensation for use as an interim trail under the National Trails System Act. The landowners' predecessors-in-interest sold right-of-way easements to a railroad for operation o...

A district court dismissed an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), under which Congress recently passed a resolution disapproving an FWS rule that prohibited certain hunting and trapping practices on National Wildlife Refuges in Alask...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' NEPA and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) claims against BLM in connection with its approval of oil and gas drilling on public and tribal lands near Cacho Cultural National Historical Park. The court agreed that the groups have standing to pu...

A district court held that BLM violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider climate change in the resource management plans (RMPs) for Buffalo, Wyoming, and Miles City, Montana, both located within the coal-rich Powder River Basin. BLM's EISs failed to consider any alternative that would decrease...