The court holds that a consent decree entered in federal court between the city of Lodi, California, and the primary insurer of a dissolved California corporation that polluted the city's groundwater does not preclude the city from bringing suit in state court to reach the corporation's other insura...

The court dismisses as unripe mining associations' claim that the U.S. Forest Service arbitrarily and capriciously designated land straddling the Hoosier Ridge in Colorado as a research natural area (RNA). The court first holds that the mining associations' claim is not fit for judicial review. Alth...

The court holds that the Alaska mining commissioner permissibly nullified the mining rights acquired by a mining claims locator on state-selected federal lands. The court first holds that the commissioner did not err in finding that the locator was not qualified to conduct business in Alaska and, th...

The court holds that because a land developer failed to receive an appealable final decision on its wetlands development permit application, the developer's takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not ripe and must be dismissed as premature. The Corps, after receiving the developer...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction to review an underground natural gas storage facility's injunctive and declaratory relief action challenging a state environmental agency's permit modification requirements. The facility sought to increase its storage capacity by including natural gas throu...

The court reverses a district court summary judgment decision that ordered the owners of unpatented mill site claims in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona to remove themselves and all their things from the sites and to restore the sites to their natural condition. The government sought to evict th...

The court holds that a timber association lacks standing under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's promulgation of an interim final rule that suspends road construction decisionmaking for 18 months in certa...

The court holds that the Price-Anderson Act conferred federal jurisdiction on a district court in a removal action where individuals alleged tortious injury arising from uranium mining. In two separate class action suits, over 1,000 individuals alleged personal injury and property damage arising fro...

The court denies a property owner's petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) authorization of the construction of a pipeline that would traverse part of the owner's historic property. The court first holds that it has jurisdiction to hear the claim. Although the landown...

The court holds that a district court incorrectly applied the doctrine of offensive collateral estoppel, thereby precluding the owner of a uranium mill from litigating the issue of negligence, in a case brought by a group of nearby residents who claimed that the owner's negligent operation of the mi...