The court reverses a district court decision holding that although a Florida city's rezoning of property to prohibit the operation of a wood-chipping business constituted an unconstitutional taking, damages should not be awarded to the business. The city approved the business' operation on a propose...

The court holds that despite the U.S. Supreme Court holding in Alexander v. Sandoval, 121 S. Ct. 1511 (2001), that there is no private right-of-action to enforce disparate impact regulations promulgated under Civil Rights Act Title VI, §602, a community group may enforce the U.S. Environmental Prot...

The court holds that the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) preempted a municipal ordinance requiring a railroad to cut weeds along its right-of-way within the municipality. The FRSA regulates every area of railroad safety, and the Act preempts all railroad safety legislation except for specific sta...

The court denies petitions to review the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) decisions to categorically exclude the closure of a Missouri city's airport from the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA's) environmental assessment (EA) requirement and to release the city's federal obligation ...

The court holds that an individual lacks standing to compel the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to make budget requests and to reprogram existing funds for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR's) implementation of a medical monitoring program in connection with a DOE facilit...

The court holds that parties may not contractually alter the standard of judicial review for an arbitration panel's award of damages to individuals for an oil company's pollution of a creek on the individuals' property and, therefore, affirms the panel's award of damages. After initially denying any...

The court holds that an electric utility company that was a 70% owner of a nuclear power plant in Iowa can deduct 15 years' worth of Energy Policy Act (EPACT) assessments in the tax year that the liability was determined. In 1992, Congress enacted the EPACT, which established a fund for the decontam...

The court dismisses for lack of jurisdiction a city's interlocutory appeal in a citizen suit brought by an environmental group alleging Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations by the city. A district court signed and entered the city's proposed order for an interlocutory appeal, and the parties...

The court dismisses a mining association's action challenging U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations concerning the use of a computerized database programmed to identify links between surface mining permit violators and applicants, individuals, and corporations. The association argued tha...

The court dismisses on res judicata grounds Native American tribes' claim that they did not have to provide pulp and paper mills with documents concerning the tribes' regulation under the Clean Water Act of the mills' wastewater discharge into rivers flowing through the tribes' reservations. After t...