The Ninth Circuit affirmed a corporate officer’s conviction under RCRA relating to the illegal storage of hazardous waste. The officer argued that the United States could charge and obtain a conviction against the corporation or him, but not both. The court disagreed. Both the corporation and ...

The First Circuit dismissed a land trust's claim that a statute revoking its title to lands in a canal area amounted to a taking and violated its due process rights. The statute amended Law 489, which among other things, created the land trust and transferred to the trust title to certain lands that...

A district court held that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA's) supplemental environmental assessment (EA) and revised finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for a proposed casino on Native American land held in trust by the United States complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)...

The Fifth Circuit, in a class action suit, reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings a lower court decision dismissing landowners' Fifth Amendment takings claims arising from the conversion of a railroad right-of-way to a recreational trail traversing their land. The la...

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' inverse condemnation suit against the federal government alleging that their property was contaminated by trichloroethylene (TCE) as the result of government actions at a U.S. Air Force base. The landowners failed to point to some evidence pres...

The Third Circuit reversed a district court judgment awarding compensation to property owners pursuant to the government’s taking of 6.45 acres of land in the Gettysburg National Military Park. The court impermissibly failed to apply the "unit rule" of valuation and, therefore, improperly deter...

A district court held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) improperly segmented its analysis of a petroleum pipeline construction project in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The BLM erroneously determined that the pipeline segment had independent utility from another proposed ...

The Court held that the "substantially advances" formula, announced in Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255, 10 ELR 20361 (1980), is not an appropriate test for determining whether a government regulation effects a Fifth Amendment taking. The "substantially advances" formula prescribes an inquiry ...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a city's proposed disposition of property owners' property, in a plan designed to revitalize the city's ailing economy, qualifies as a "public use" within the meaning of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There is no allegation that a...

The court upholds a district court decision that the U.S. Navy's environmental impact statement (EIS) for the construction of an aircraft landing field in North Carolina was deficient under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), but it vacates the court's injunction of the project as overly b...