The D.C. Circuit held that environmental groups have standing to challenge DOI's decision to remove the Blair Mountain Battlefield—the site of a large 1921 coal miner uprising in West Virginia—from the National Register of Historic Places. Shortly after the Battlefield was listed in 2009, the si...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision that FHwA and North Carolina complied with NEPA in their approval of a bridge and highway improvement project between the mainland and the Outer Banks barrier islands, but reversed that court's determination that the defendants were exempt from co...

The Second Circuit reversed a lower court decision that FDA was required to hold hearings to determine whether to withdraw approval for the use of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed. Looking at the text of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the context, the regulations, and the backg...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for an injunction and stay of an earlier decision that allows logging operations in the Nez Perce National Forest to proceed. The court previously held that the U.S. Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when it approved a project...

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...