The court holds that the military and state secrets privilege and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) §6001 presidential exemption bar two RCRA citizen suits against the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The two suits alleged RCRA violations and sought...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service's decision to implement land and resource management plan (LRMP) amendments prospectively, but not retroactively, does not violate the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). The court first holds that the grant of authority to amend the LRMPs includes the...

The court holds that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) approval of the expansion of Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport does not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the Clean Air Act (CAA). The court first rejects the arguments made by two cities that if FAA had taken a...

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 that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) decision to approve a city's application to amend a hydroelectric power license did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the Federal Power Act (FPA). The application proposed the running of a 9.6-mile pow...

The court holds that an intraagency memorandum discussing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposal to protect the pallid sturgeon in Missouri is exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure under the deliberative process privilege. The court first holds that the sturgeon memo is protec...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have the authority to impose its own separate enforcement penalties on a Missouri corporation after the corporation and an authorized state agency negotiated a state court-approved settlement for Resource Conservation and R...

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 unlawful a U.S. Department of Commerce fishing quota that allocates the summer catch of scup on a state-by-state basis for Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. Massachusetts argued that the quota was based on incomplete historical data that reflected only scup landings from lar...

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...