The D.C. Circuit denied an individual's request for attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) despite having won her lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) concerning the mute swan. In that case, the court held that the DOI's exclusion of the mute swan fr...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that environmental groups lack standing to challenge U.S. Forest Service regulations exempting certain land management activities from the agency's review process absent a live dispute over the concrete application of those regulations. The regulations exempt small fire-r...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing commercial fishermen's takings claim against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for prohibiting commercial fishing on waters surrounding the Palmyra National Wildlife Refuge. The fishermen argued they were entitled to compensation...

The Ninth Circuit temporarily stayed the expansion of a phosphate mine located near the Idaho-Wyoming border. Environmental groups filed a motion to preliminarily enjoin the project, arguing that the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act...

A Minnesota appellate court upheld a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency rule governing phosphorus effluent discharges into state waters. A coalition of cities argued that because the rule provides that a discharger "may" rather than "shall" qualify for an exemption if it demonstrates that it can mee...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal of a property owner's claim for just compensation after the FWS required mitigation in connection with its sale of property to the U.S. Navy. A property owner sought to sell some of its land to the U.S. Navy. But because the FWS deemed the site ...

A district court held that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection may intervene in environmental groups' lawsuit challenging the DOI Secretary's approval of two amendments to the state's surface mining regulatory program. Although the goal of the state agency appears to be identica...

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review of a FERC decision denying environmental groups' motion to intervene in a license renewal proceeding for a dam. Although the groups' motion to intervene was late, they argued that FERC abused its discretion in denying their late intervention motion sinc...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed as unripe property owner's CERCLA and RCRA claims against the former owners for the costs of removing lead and other pollutants deposited on the land, which had been used as a shooting range. The owner's asserted cleanup costs are speculative and were calculated without r...

A Minnesota appellate court upheld a state permit regulating ballast-water discharges into Minnesota waters of Lake Superior. An environmental group argued that the agency erred in its interpretation and application of the state's nondegradation rule, failed to conduct an appropriate nondegradation ...