The Third Circuit held that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) need not examine the environmental impact of a hypothetical terrorist attack on a nuclear power facility during its review of an application to relicense that facility. New Jersey's environmental agency, in its petition for review o...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion to enjoin the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from authorizing and/or commencing any dredge and fill activities related to the construction of a byway project in Sandpoint, Idaho. The groups argued that the Corps improperly failed to consider and sel...

The Second Circuit denied a petition for review of an Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) order approving the relocation of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport to a new site in Florida. The FAA complied with the National Environmental Policy Act's procedural requirements in evaluating...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of former county water inspectors' 42 U.S.C. §1983 and First Amendment claims against their employer for unlawfully firing them. The inspectors alleged they were fired in retaliation for reporting concerns about the counties' compliance with the Clean W...

The Eighth Circuit, in a CWA enforcement action filed by the United States and the state of Missouri against a water district, affirmed a lower court decision denying the state's motion to dismiss the district's counterclaims and to strike its affirmative defenses claiming financial inability to com...

The U.S Supreme Court held that a local ordinance that imposes a personal property tax on certain boats and vessels but contains exceptions that, in effect, largely limit its applicability to large oil tankers violates the U.S. Constitution's Tonnage Clause, Art. I, §10, cl. 3. The ordinance im...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision denying a petition for review of the U.S. Forest Service's determination not to undertake an EA of certain elk feedgrounds located on federal lands in Wyoming. Each winter the state of Wyoming feeds approximately 13,000 elk at 22 designated feedgrounds...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision setting aside the U.S. Forest Service's State Petitions Rule and reinstating the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the "Roadless Rule," pending the Service's compliance with NEPA and the ESA. The State Petitions Rule, issued in ...

A district court rejected claims that the U.S. Army violated NEPA by failing to provide a supplemental analysis reflecting new alternative destruction technologies that could be used in lieu of on-site incineration at four chemical weapon incineration facilities. For the four challenged sites, the A...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of a proposed land exchange between the agency and a mining company in violation of NEPA. The land exchange would transfer ownership of certain BLM property to a mining company, thereby allowing the compan...