The Federal Circuit upheld a lower court decision rejecting landowners' claims that the United States had taken their property without just compensation by erecting a log boom that prevented them from using a slough next to their property. The government placed the log boom in the slough to ...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, reversed a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Forest Service in a case challenging its approval of four timber logging projects in the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service failed to adequately explain it decisi...

The Tenth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service may charge visitors to Mt. Evans an "amenity fee" under the Recreation Enhancement Act (REA). Plaintiffs, outdoor enthusiasts, argued that the fee exceeds the Service's statutory authority under the REA. But to prevail in a facial challenge to an a...

A district court held that environmental groups lack standing to challenge BLM's approval of two quarterly oil and gas lease sales under the APA, NEPA, FLPMA, and the Mineral Leasing Act. The groups claimed that BLM failed to meaningfully address the issue of climate change in approving the leases, ...

The Ninth Circuit held that environmental groups may intervene in a citizen suit against the U.S. Forest Service concerning restricted motorized and mechanized vehicle use in a section of the Gallatin National Forest. In the underlying action, the citizens group argued that the Forest Service's plan...

A district court held that the Secretary of the Interior violated FLPMA and the APA when he withdrew a record of decision (ROD) adopting six revised resource management plans, collectively known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, for 2.5 million acres of BLM lands in western Oregon. The S...

The Ninth Circuit upheld, on statutory and constitutional grounds, California's vessel fuel rules as they apply to vessels located more than three miles off the California coast. The rules, which seek to reduce air pollutants affecting the state of California, require ocean-going vessels to ...

A California court ordered the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set aside its "functional equivalent document" that evaluates the environmental consequences of its climate change scoping plan and to enjoin implementation of the scoping plan until the agency complies with its obligati...

A district court set aside a U.S. Forest Service rule exempting the Tongass National Forest—the nation's largest—from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The court ruled that the exemption was arbitrary and capricious because the Forest Service failed to provide a rational basis for temporarily...

A California appellate court invalidated a state policy prohibiting development seaward of the most landward historical position of the mean high tide line. The policy is an invalid underground regulation because it was not promulgated as a regulation under the APA. Although the state agency that ad...