The U.S. Supreme Court held that government-induced flooding that is temporary in duration may constitute a takings and is not automatically exempt from Takings Clause inspection. The case arose after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended flooding from a dam into the Dave Donaldson Black River W...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the logging of 11 timber sales and to halt any further logging activities in known occupied marbled murrelet sites in Oregon's Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliot state forests. Defendants argued that the case was moot becau...

The Fifth Circuit held that DOI did not violate a district court order preliminarily enjoining enforcement of a drilling moratorium following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico by issuing a second drilling ban. Shortly after the spill, at the president's direction, DOI prohibi...

A district court held that an insurance company need not indemnify its insured for certain repair and replacement costs it incurred cleaning up the release of contaminants from an underground gasoline storage tank. A clear reading of the plain language of the policy indicates the company was not req...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision denying a petition challenging a city's certification of a final environmental impact report (EIR) for a project to amend the city's "sphere of influence" to include an undeveloped portion of a university campus in order to allow the city ...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a citizen group's lawsuit seeking to vacate a city's approval of a "big box" retail store. The group alleged that the approval violated planning and zoning laws. Their suit, however, is time barred under Cal. Gov. Code §65009(c...

A district court denied the U.S. government's motion to empanel a sentencing jury to determine an oil company's gross pecuniary gain stemming from CAA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act violations. After the company was convicted under both statutes, the government recommended that the court impose a fin...