The First Circuit dismissed a land trust's claim that a statute revoking its title to lands in a canal area amounted to a taking and violated its due process rights. The statute amended Law 489, which among other things, created the land trust and transferred to the trust title to certain lands that...

The Federal Circuit held that landowners seeking compensation for the alleged taking of their respective reversionary property interests under the National Trail Systems Act were permitted to opt in to a class action lawsuit against the government. The landowners alleged that the conversion of a rai...

A district court denied the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's motion to transfer to the U.S. District Court of Delaware various claims filed against it by environmental groups and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection arising out of the Corps' plan to deepen 102 miles of the Delaware Riv...

A district court denied an insurer's partial motion for summary judgment on claims that it must indemnify a lead smelter in an underlying lawsuit concerning bodily injury and property damage arising out of the smelter's operations near Herculaneum, Missouri. The insurer argued that coverage is barre...

The Eight Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of a city accused of illegally providing water and sewer services to customers within a nearby water district's boundaries. In 2007, the USDA granted the water district a $2 million loan...

The Ninth Circuit, in a memorandum opinion, ruled that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) complied with NEPA and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) in approving oil companies' plans for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, Alaska. Petitioners claimed that there are mu...

The Seventh Circuit upholds a lower court decision denying an environmental group's request to rescind or modify a court order requiring it to post a $10,000 bond after it asked for and was granted a preliminary injunction preventing the U.S. Forest Service from allowing several thousand acres of a ...

A California appellate court upholds a lower court decision decertifying a county's environmental impact report (EIR) for an open-air human waste composting facility under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Substantial evidence does not support the EIR's position that an enclosed facil...

The Fifth Circuit vacates an earlier ruling in which a panel reversed a lower court decision dismissing Mississippi residents' class action lawsuit against several energy, fossil fuel, and chemical companies for their alleged contribution to climate change. When the court first granted rehearing en ...

The U.S. Supreme Court holds that North Carolina should not be held liable or subject to monetary sanctions for failing to fulfill its obligations to an interstate radioactive waste compact. Under the agreement, North Carolina was to take "appropriate steps" to obtain a license and then construct an...