The U.S. Supreme Court held that a justice sitting on West Virginia's highest court should have recused himself from a case involving a coal company that contributed large sums of money toward the judge's election campaign. In that case, a jury found the company liable for fraudulent misrepresentati...

The Sixth Circuit dismissed a miner's petition for writ of mandamus directing the Secretary of Labor to promulgate lower limits for the mount of dust and silica allowed in the air in mines. The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 authorizes the Secretary to promulgate mandatory air quality st...

A district court dismissed, without prejudice, environmental group's CAA lawsuit challenging an energy company's plans to expand one of its coal-fired power plants. Four of the five plaintiffs in this action are also petitioners in an action pending before the North Carolina Office of Administrative...

The Seventh Circuit held that an environmental group lacks standing in their action against several government agencies for allowing the discharge of bullets into Lake Michigan at a U.S.-operated gun range. The group alleged that the deterioration of the lead bullets in the water harmed the environm...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision holding moot certain parts of a 1975 injunction regulating air emissions from a mining company's taconite pellet operation in Silver Bay, Minnesota. The lower court held that since portions of the injunction had been effectively incorporated into st...

A district court held that it lacks jurisdiction over a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands natural resources commissioner against two chemical companies for negligence, strict liability, and nuisance in connection with the contamination of an aquifer that was once a significant source of drink...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision remanding to state court residents' class action lawsuit against a mining company for property contamination stemming from the company's mining operations. The residents originally filed the suit in state court, but the company removed the case to fe...

The First Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Native American tribe's claim challenging the Bureau of Indian Affair's (BIA's) decision to allow a plot of tribal land to be leased for the construction and operation of a liquefied natural gas facility. The tribe argued that the BIA's decision violated t...

The Tenth Circuit held that a proposed intervener may not establish standing, and thus federal court jurisdiction over its motion to intervene, by "piggybacking" on the standing of an existing party to a lawsuit over which the district court has retained jurisdiction but within which there is no cur...

The Ninth Circuit held that animal rights organizations lacked standing to challenge a USDA notice stating that "there is no specific federal humane handling and slaughter statute for poultry." The lower court entered summary judgment in favor of the USDA, holding that while the plain meaning of the...