The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the agency's authorization of travel management plans that permitted motorized game retrieval within a mile of every open road in three districts of the Kaibab National Forest. Environmental groups argued the...

The D.C. Circuit reversed a district court's decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a transmission line that would cross the historic James River. Conservation groups argued that the Corps should have prepared an EIS for the project because it would significantly impact his...

A magistrate judge ruled in favor of environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM's) approval of a coal mine expansion in southeastern Montana.The groups argued that OSM failed to take a "hard look" at impacts of ...

A district court granted in part and denied in part a pipeline company's motion to stay a previous order enjoining the company from continuing certain preconstruction activities on the Keystone XL oil pipeline until the State Department completed a supplemental EIS. The company sought to continue th...

In an unpublished opinion, the D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' petitions to review FERC's issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The groups argued that FERC failed to adequately consider the climate change impacts of ...

A district court dismissed a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department violated the Fourth Amendment by entering the Center without consent or warra...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment against BLM for lease sales in 2017. The groups argued that BLM failed to fully consider numerous and foreseeable environmental impacts of the leases as required under NEPA. But the court found that BLM's analysis in general t...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of a constitutional challenge to California's 2015 Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Farming groups argued that the state's LCFS violated the Commerce Clause and the federal structure of the Constitution by regulating extraterritorially. But the...

A district court ruled unconstitutional an Iowa statute that criminalized undercover investigations of slaughterhouses and other animal facilities. Environmental groups argued that the state statute impermissibly restricted their free speech under the First Amendment because it was a content- and vi...