The Supreme Court of Alaska reversed a lower court decision that plaintiffs challenging land and water use permits allowing intensive mineral exploration in Alaska's prospective Pebble Mine had "sufficient economic incentive" to warrant the imposition of attorney fees against them. The plaintiffs ha...

The Supreme Court of Alaska held that the state's Department of Natural Resources should have provided public notice before issuing land and water use permits allowing intensive mineral exploration in the prospective Pebble Mine. The Alaska Constitution requires public notice when interests in land ...

The Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing individuals' lawsuit against a government contractor on jurisdictional grounds, holding that the company was not necessarily immune from suit. The case arose out of cleanup and remediation work that an engineering company perf...

The D.C. Circuit held that building and development associations lacked standing to challenge consent decrees that require FWS to determine, in accordance with a settlement-defined schedule, whether 251 species should be listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. The case arose after environm...

A district court dismissed portions of a mining company's lawsuit against EPA alleging that the Agency violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) during its review of the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska. The company claimed that EPA formed three committees—the Anti-Mine Coalition, the Anti-...

The D.C. Circuit held that a home builders' association lacked standing to challenge EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' determination that two reaches of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona constitute "traditional navigable waters" (TNW) under the CWA. The court previously held in a si...

The First Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit concerning a proposed offshore wind power generation facility in Nantucket Sound. Opponents of the facility—a town, an advocacy group, and several individuals and businesses in the area—sought to nullify the state's approval ...