A district court vacated BLM's 2018 instruction memorandum (IM) and oil and gas lease sales in Montana and Wyoming issued in reliance on the IM for failing to maintain federal protections for the greater sage-grouse. Environmental groups challenged the IM and lease sales, arguing that they violated ...
The Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded the U.S. Tax Court's decision disallowing a charitable deduction for a conservation easement over property that included a private golf course and undeveloped land. The appellate court found that the Internal Revenue Code did not disqualify an easement simpl...
The Third Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that the U.S. government was not liable to a coatings company for cleanup costs at a chromite ore processing plant with which it was involved during World War I and World War II. The district court concluded the government was not subject to operato...
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in part and vacated in part the Montana high court's ruling in a lawsuit concerning cleanup actions across a 300-square-mile Superfund site in Butte. Landowners whose properties are located within the site brought trespass, nuisance, and strict liability claims under ...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed a Native American tribe's petition to review a FERC order denying the tribe's motion to intervene in the Commission's proceeding over construction of a natural gas pipeline in Massachusetts. The tribe argued that, in authorizing construction of a pipeline across land that ...
Our country's landscape has changed dramatically over the last 50 years as a result of numerous governmental policies and subsidies that encourage low-density development commonly referred to as "sprawl." Sprawl results in environmental problems ranging from air pollution to wetland degradation. Our countryside is disappearing and becoming more fragmented, while urban areas are simply neglected. Moreover, this type of growth, which has gone unchecked for the latter half of this century, increases traffic congestion, strains public budgets, and deteriorates our quality of life.