The Court holds that a landowner's takings claim against a regional planning agency is ripe for adjudication. The agency determined that the landowner may not develop her property but is entitled to transferable development rights (TDRs). The Court first notes that its discussion is confined to whet...

The court holds that a municipal solid waste district that condemned a landowner's property for use as a landfill did not violate the landowner's right to due process or "take" money the landowner spent fighting the condemnation, but may have violated the landowner's right to equal protection. The c...

The court holds that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which entered into two agreements with Canada regarding rights to excess water stored in reservoirs on the Columbia River system in Canada, did not violate the Northwest Power Act (NPA) or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). T...

The court upholds the U.S. government's imposition, under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, of a special assessment on domestic utilities to help fund the cleanup of governmental facilities that provided uranium enrichment services to the assessed utilities. The court first holds that the provisions of...

The court holds that a Minnesota waste management statute that requires public entities to comply with county waste management plans does not violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by barring the importation of waste processing services. Minnesota statute §115A.46 requires public enti...

The court vacates district court sanctions that called for the suspension of three attorneys and the payment of $1 million to a halfway house, but affirms a $120,000 sanction for counsel fees and costs, which were imposed against a law firm and its client, an oil company, for discovery violations in...

The court holds that a uranium mining company must exhaust its jurisdiction-based appeals in the Navajo tribal court system before challenging in federal court the Navajo court's jurisdiction over nuclear torts. The court first holds that the Price-Anderson Act's jurisdictional provisions do not cre...

The court affirms a district court decision holding that various state environmental officials' delay in approving a permit to build a pier did not violate the applicants' due process, equal protection, or First Amendment rights. In 1991, the applicants, who own a tree farm on an island off the coas...

The court holds that a low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) facility developer lacks standing to challenge the Secretary of the Interior's rescission of its previous record of decision approving the sale and transfer of federal land to the state of California, which would have allowed the developer to...

The court affirms a district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a local commission charged with maintaining and operating the Red River Waterway in Louisiana in an inverse condemnation suit brought against it by riparian landowners whose property was flooded after the U.S. Army Corps of E...