The court holds that an Arizona statute, which relinquished state claims to lands below the high watermark of all navigable watercourses, in order to protect existing private title assumptions violates the public trust doctrine and the state constitutional gift clause. The court first holds that the...

The court amends its decision at 22 ELR 21455, which vacated and remanded a magistrate judge's decision that a Florida county's land use plan resulted in a taking of waterfront property under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In its amended opinion, the court directs the ...

The court holds that a county in the state of Washington violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it adopted an ordinance barring disposal in the county of medical waste generated outside the county, and the court remands for a determination of whether attorneys fees are warranted ...

The court holds that under California law, environmental response costs for actions taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) constitute "damages" within the meaning of a comprehensive general liab...

The court holds moot a citizen suit under §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) against a tannery operator for alleged discharges of industrial wastewater into a New York State sewer system in violation of the FWPCA and state law. Applying dicta from the U.S. Supreme Court's holdi...

The court holds that an Office of Government Ethics' (OGE's) regulation allowing federal employees to accept reimbursement for expenses incurred in giving "official" speeches, but not "unofficial" speeches, is valid on its face under the First Amendment. The court first holds that the proper standar...

The court holds that the presumption against extraterritorial application of statutes does not apply where the conduct regulated by the statute occurs primarily, if not exclusively, in the United States, and the alleged extraterritorial effect of the statute will be felt in Antarctica, and remands f...

The court dismisses claims by owners of property adjacent to a natural gas pipeline that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Natural Gas Act (NGA), and the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it issued a certificate ...

The court holds that the Federal Power Act (FPA) preempts state regulation of a federally licensed hydroelectric power project in a national forest in California. The court first holds that the action is ripe for review even though plaintiff dam operator has not completed the state permitting proces...

The court holds that the seller of real property, whom the buyer alleges sold the property with soil contamination, is not entitled to indemnification or contribution from the buyer's environmental consultant, who reported before the sale in a subsurface soil and groundwater contaminants investigati...