The court rejects a district court trial plan that provided for a unitary trial on general liability and causation in a mass tort case against an oil company that owned a crude oil storage waste pit on which plaintiff-appellees' homes were built. The trial plan provided for a bellwether group of 30 ...

The court affirms a district court decision that New Jersey's solid waste flow control laws violate the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause, but reverses the lower court's decision to stay an injunction against enforcement of those laws until two years after the exhaustion of appeals and certiorari ...

The Court holds that the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's suit against Idaho and Idaho officials over title to submerged lands within the original boundaries of the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. The Court first holds that under well-established principles, the ...

The court upholds a trial court determination that a use prohibition issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Federal Water Pollution Control Act §404 constitutes a mere diminution in value of a real estate developer's land and does not constitute a compensable categorical taking. The court...

The court holds that plaintiff-appellant landowners' allegation that gasoline contamination from an adjoining property constituted a continuing nuisance presents an arguable cause of action under state law against the current adjacent landowner. The court first holds that plaintiff-appellants' plead...

The court holds that a Michigan confined disposal facility (CDF) run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) must accept dredged materials that were accumulated to determine the environmental impacts that the construction of a combined sewer overflow (CSO) retention basin will have on a cree...

The court holds that a district court properly transferred to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims a case involving the issuance of two Indian Land Certificates. In 1944, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued an individual two parcels of land. Upon the death of the individual in 1989, DOI can...

The court holds that individuals' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) suit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeking to enjoin the agency from shipping the nuclear material mixed oxide uranium (MOx), from the United States and Russia to Canada is moot. The individuals claimed that DOE...

The court holds that seafood processors who settled with an oil company in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill before the mandatory punitive damages class was certified are entitled to share in the allocation of a punitive damages judgment even though the settling processors assigned their fu...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) had a non-discretionary duty to take into trust land purchased by the Wyandotte Tribe in Kansas, and, therefore, no National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and no National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) analysis was necessary before a...