Minnesota Sands, LLC v. Winona, Minnesota, County of
Minnesota's high court upheld an appellate court ruling in favor of a county's zoning ordinance that bans all industrial-mineral mining, including silica-sand mining. A silica-sand mining company argued the ordinance violated the dormant Commerce Clause by discriminating against its business. The hi...
Back Bay Restoration Foundation, LTD v. United States Army Corps. of Engineers
A district court denied summary judgment to an environmental group challenging the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers' issuance of a CWA §404 permit for development of an additional portion of an existing residential subdivision in Virginia Beach. The group argued the issuance was arbitrary and capricious...
United States v. California
A district court denied summary judgment to the U.S. government in a lawsuit concerning California's cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec. The government argued the agreement violated the Treaty Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it was binding and "confederat[ed] the laws of the two jurisdictio...
South Carolina Coastal Conservation League v. Ross
A district court denied a motion to dismiss a challenge to NMFS' decision to issue incidental harassment authorizations to five companies to conduct seismic testing for oil and gas in the Mid- and South Atlantic Ocean. South Carolina challenged President Trump's reversal via Executive Order No. 1379...
Downstream Addicks and Barker (Texas) Flood-Control Reservoirs
The Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. government was not liable for the flooding of homes near two dams managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Property owners downstream of the dams argued that the government flooded their lands by opening the dams' ...