The U.S. Supreme Court holds that an association's claim that a National Park Service (NPS) regulation that purports to render the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) inapplicable to concession contracts is not yet ripe for adjudication. The lower courts upheld the regulation, finding that the NPS' interpre...

The court holds that a Native American tribe lacked standing to challenge the transfer of land from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the state of South Dakota. The tribe argued that the title transfer will eviscerate the Secretary of the Army’s ability to enforce federal cultural protection...

The court affirms a district court dismissal of an environmental group's National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Department of Transportation Act challenge to the extension of a rail system because the group lacked standing. To establish standing under the Administ...

The court holds that the doctrine of issue preclusion bars a manufacturing company from relitigating whether an insurer has a duty to defend or indemnify the company in various class actions and administrative proceedings arising from environmental contamination at one of the company's plants. The i...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction over a gas station operator's appeal of a district court order requiring it to deposit money into an escrow account to pay for anticipated cleanup costs of neighboring contaminated property. The operator's liability for the cleanup has not been reduced to a...

The court dismisses a railroad's state-law and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims against two petroleum companies that operated pipeline terminals on the railroad's property. Claim preclusion barred the railroad from bringing suit against one of the...

The court reverses a district court decision that environmental groups failed to establish both standing and ripeness in their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) challenges to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule defining the new national forest managem...

The Ninth Circuit holds that a district court erred in holding that residents living across from a county dump lacked standing to bring Clean Air Act (CAA) claims based on ozone degradation against a county health department and in granting the county summary judgment on the residents' Resource Cons...

The court holds that it lacked jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) decision denying environmental groups' request that the licensing of two nuclear power plants in New York be conditioned on several safety-related changes in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist att...

The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a landowner's lawsuit challenging the USDA's financing of a sewage treatment plant for lack of standing. The landowner argued that in the event of a 100-year flood, the treatment plant increases the risk of flooding on his land. The landowner, however, fail...