The court holds that waste management companies that own landfills in Virginia may bring suit to enjoin the enforcement of several recently enacted state statutes aimed at curtailing the flow of out-of-state municipal solid waste into the state. Landfills, which are privately operated under contract...

The court affirms a district court dismissal of a property owner's 42 U.S.C. §1983 suit, which alleged a New Hampshire town effectuated an uncompensated taking of the owner's property, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Before seeking relief in federal court, the owner initiated two lawsuits ...

The court upholds a district court decision dismissing as unripe a waste disposal plant's claim that a county's revocation of an unusual use zoning permit constituted a taking without just compensation. The plant filed suit in district court after a circuit court affirmed the county's revocation of ...

The court holds that because a land developer failed to receive an appealable final decision on its wetlands development permit application, the developer's takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not ripe and must be dismissed as premature. The Corps, after receiving the developer...

The court holds that government agents did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they searched a trailer rented by an asbestos removal contractor who arranged for the disposal of asbestos from three elementary schools. The court first holds that the contractor did not have a legitimate expectation o...

The court holds that a timber association lacks standing under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's promulgation of an interim final rule that suspends road construction decisionmaking for 18 months in certa...

The court holds that property owners who built unpermitted structures on a county's right-of-way so that they could access adjacent tidelands did not hold property rights in the structures and could not seek compensation under the state constitution, the U.S. Constitution, or state limited access fa...

The court holds that a city ordinance requiring all garbage collected within city limits, except garbage destined for out-of-state disposal, to be processed at the city-owned transfer station violates the dormant U.S. Commerce Clause. A waste hauler discovered it could dispose of waste more economic...

The court upholds a district court determination that the Animal and Plant Inspection Service satisfied the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it prepared a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for a regulation addressing foreign pest infestation of plants and hardwoods. The...

The court holds that a waste haulers association has standing to assert a U.S. Commerce Clause claim against a district waste authority for enacting a system of flow control ordinances that captured the district's generated waste in order to finance a trash-to-steam facility. Under the system, haule...