The court upholds a U.S. Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) determination that a company's failure to file a stipulation of entry rendered its mining claims null and void ab initio. When the Secretary of the Interior opened certain lands to mining claims in 1954, he required that a ...

The court holds unripe for review the Interior Board of Land Appeals' (IBLA's) ruling that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) lacks jurisdiction to order a mining company to reduce acid mine drainage seeping from a mining operation in West Virginia. The IBLA ruled that th...

The court holds that the doctrine of sovereign immunity bars citizens from bringing suit against West Virginia state officials in federal court to enjoin the state from granting mountaintop mining permits. Citizens brought suit against the state officials alleging that in granting mountaintop coal m...

The court holds that the Eleventh Amendment bars all but two claims brought by citizen groups in federal court against a state official accused of failing to implement, administer, enforce, and maintain a federally approved state coal mining program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation A...

The court holds that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) §1272(e) prohibits subsidence and underground mining activities that might lead to subsidence in parks and protected areas. The Secretary of the Interior interpreted §1272(e), which prohibits surface coal mining operations...

The Second Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a property owner's lawsuit against a zoning district that denied his variance request to build a single-family home on his land. The district denied his application because his proposal did not comply with a local zoning law that sets...

The Tenth Circuit, in a 120-page opinion, reversed a lower court decision setting aside and permanently enjoining the U.S. Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule. In setting aside the rule, the lower court held that the Service violated the Wilderness Act of 1964 and NEPA. But the Wilderne...

The court upholds Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations allowing state agencies that administer federally approved programs under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) to terminate their jurisdiction over reclaimed sites of completed surface mining and reclamation operations ...

The court reverses a lower court decision finding the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) liable for the permanent taking of a mining company's leasehold property. The mining company applied to the OSM for a permit and was told that its application was administratively incompl...

A Nevada court upheld a county decision denying a company's request for a special use permit to mine clay from two open pits on federal land north of Reno, Nevada, and to build a plant to produce cat litter on private land nearby. The Mining Law of 1872 and federal regulations don't exempt the proje...