The court holds that a county zoning board's denial of an existing nonconforming use certificate to a strip miner that also wanted to operate a landfill on its property did not violate the strip mining company's due process or equal protection rights or constitute a taking without just compensation....

The court reverses and remands a district court decision and holds that counties' flow-control ordinances, which require that all waste generated within the counties be delivered to one of five publicly owned facilities, are not unconstitutional under the U.S. Commerce Clause. In-state waste haulers...

The court holds that a trial court erred in not evaluating evidence of environmental contamination and remediation costs related to a company's property that a regional economic alliance, acting for a town, took by eminent domain. The court first holds that excluding contamination evidence, as a mat...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) did not violate appellants' First Amendment rights or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it established safety zones insulating a private "super ferry" in Hawaii from blockade by local protesters...

The First Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a developer's equal protection claim against a town for intentionally obstructing a condominium real estate development project. The city ordered the developer to take certain remediation measures to control erosion and prevent damage to n...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying a motion to dismiss environmental groups' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) claim against the director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation concerning the construction of a bridge. The director argued that the claims aga...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations restricting a farm's egg sales during a two-year period due to the presence of salmonella bacteria constituted a taking for which just compensation is due. The farm's monetary loss due to the regulati...

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...