Marcellus Shale Coalition v. Department of Environmental Protection
A Pennsylvania court preliminarily enjoined the commonwealth from enforcing certain Marcellus Shale drilling regulations pending the outcome of an industry group's lawsuit. The group alleged that the regulations were unreasonable, violated state law, were void for vagueness, and that the government ...
Upstate Citizens for Equality, Inc. v. United States
The Second Circuit upheld the federal government's 2008 decision to take approximately 13,000 acres of land in central New York into trust on behalf of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 authorizes the federal government to take land into trust on behalf of I...
Rocky Mountain Helium, LLC v. United States
The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a lower court decision dismissing a helium extraction company's breach of contract claims against the United States. In 1994, the parties entered a contract under which BLM gave the company the right to extract helium gas from roughly 21,000 ...
Sierra Club v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of environmental groups' lawsuit challenging the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's EIS for its updated land use plan. Applying a standard similar to the standard for evaluating an EIS under NEPA, the court held that the EIS and update adequately addressed the lo...