A district court held that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L), the level presently considered “optimal” in the United States, posed an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children. Anti-fluoride groups and individuals had petitioned EPA under TSCA to regulate the fluoridatio...

A district court granted summary judgment for conservation groups in a challenge to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS') recent update to a program concerning the use of pesticides to suppress grasshopper and cricket outbreaks. The groups argued APHIS' 2019 EIS and five state-le...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a 2022 EPA order requiring chemical manufacturers/processors to test the chronic toxicity of 1,1,2-trichloroethane pursuant to TSCA. A trade organization representing seven entities challenged the order, arguing EPA failed to comply with several statutory requirements. The c...

A district court granted in part and denied in part an outdoor recreation group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the National Park Service's (NPS') regulations governing commercial filming on public lands. The group argued the regulations' land use fee and permitting requirements violated the First ...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a TSCA citizen suit concerning EPA's decision on a petition to require testing for 54 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Four citizen groups argued that EPA's decision, which granted the petition and agreed to require testing on PFAS as a class throu...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a constitutional challenge brought by a pipeline company concerning a 1949 permit a local levee board granted to the company to construct and maintain two pipelines across a levee in Mayersville, Mississippi. The company argued the board violated the Contracts...

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the Takings Clause does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land use permit conditions, in a lawsuit concerning a traffic impact fee as a condition of building a prefabricated home on a parcel of land. The landowner challenged the fee a...

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that Texas property owners should be permitted to pursue claims under the Takings Clause through an inverse-condemnation cause of action available under Texas law. Over 120 property owners argued that a Texas highway elevation and expansion project, which buil...

The Fifth Circuit vacated two orders EPA issued under TSCA that prohibited a plastics company from manufacturing or processing long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) during its fluorination process. In March 2022, EPA charged that the company's fluorination process was subject to a recently promulgated s...