A Colorado appellate court reversed a lower court decision to hold that the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) prevented the state from increasing the coal removal tax rate without prior voter approval. The tax rate is determined by a statutory formula, whereby a base rate is periodically adju...
A Colorado appellate court reversed a lower court decision to hold that the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) prevented the state from increasing the coal removal tax rate without prior voter approval. The tax rate is determined by a statutory formula, whereby a base rate is periodically adju...
The West Virginia Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part a series of jury verdicts, orders and rulings in a class action where the owner of a zinc smelter facility was found liable to class members for approximately $382 million in damages related to off-site arsenic, cadmium, and lead ...
The California Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision to find that a citizen group’s suit challenging a city’s approval of a Wal-Mart was time barred under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The city filed a notice of exemption (NOE) announcing its determination that the app...
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision that granted in part a citizen group’s petition for a writ of mandate under the California Environmental Quality Act challenging the certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) by a university board in regards to the developmen...
A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that denied in part petitions for writ of mandate of plaintiffs, public agencies and mutual water companies, challenging certain amendments made to a water quality control plan by a state water quality control board. Plaintiffs asserted th...
The U.S. Supreme Court held that a Native American tribe's reacquisition of historic reservation land does not prohibit the imposition of local property taxes. The tribe cannot unilaterally revive its ancient sovereignty over the parcels at issue. The tribe long ago relinquished governmental reins a...
A California appellate court, in an eminent domain action concerning the valuation of property to be used in a highway project, held that a trial court correctly precluded the city's valuation method of the taken property. The city argued that the taken property should be valued based on its "agricu...
A district court denied New Jersey's motion to amend a 1997 consent decree concerning the Gloucester Environmental Management Services, Inc., landfill and ordered it to comply with the terms of the decree. The state alleged that the detection of the presence of radionuclides requires a new remedy fo...
The Supreme Court of California held that the California Coastal Commission's approval of a coastal development permit that straddles the coastal zone boundary conforms with the California Coastal Act of 1976. The Commission considered the ways in which the proposed development outside the coastal z...