The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a conservation group's claims that the State Department violated its NEPA and ESA obligations in conducting annual certifications of countries exempted from the general ban on shrimp imports. Section 609(b) of Public Law No. 101-162 prohib...

A district court upheld the FWS' "warranted-but-precluded" finding for the sage-grouse under the ESA. An environmental group challenged the “precluded” portion of the “warranted-but-precluded” decision, focusing on a key finding by the Director of the FWS that the threats to the sage-grouse ...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion for reconsideration and overturned its previous decision upholding the DOI's "Counterpart ESA §7 Consultation Regulations" for National Fire Plan (NFP) projects. The government's rationale for proposing the rule in the first instance was ...

A district court held that oil and gas companies should not be criminally charged under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for the death of migratory birds found in North Dakota oil fields. The MBTA, as broadly interpreted by the U.S. government, offers unlimited potential for criminal prosec...

The Federal Claims Court dismissed a water district's claim that certain operating restrictions on a water project imposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the ESA to protect endangered steelhead trout is a physical taking entitling it to compensation under the Fifth Amendment. The res...

A district court upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') decision to list the Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered under the ESA. The state of Alaska, an oil company, and several nonprofit corporations challenged the decision, questioning the rationale behind the NFMS' decision, its ...

A district court set aside and remanded the FWS' 12-month finding that the desert bald eagle does not qualify as a distinct population segment (DPS) of bald eagles entitled to statutory protection under the ESA. In 2004, an environmental group petitioned the FWS to list desert eagles as a DPS, but t...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision vacating the FWS' decision to remove the Yellowstone distinct population segment of grizzly bears from the ESA's threatened species list. Given the lack of data indicating grizzly population stability in the face of white...

The Ninth Circuit held that the FWS' determination that a proposed mining project in northwest Montana would result in "no adverse modification" to critical bull trout habitat and would result in "no jeopardy" to the local grizzly bear population was not arbitrary, capricious, or in violation of the...

A district court upheld a NMFS biological opinion (BiOp) concluding that EPA's registration decisions under FIFRA for three insecticides—chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion—were likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 27 protected species of salmon and steelhead fish and would destroy o...