The Ninth Circuit granted in part one petition to review and denied another petition to review EPA's 2014, 2015, and 2017 decisions to register a pesticide that combines two chemicals—2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) choline salt and glyphosate—to kill weeds on corn, soybean, and cotton fi...
The Ninth Circuit vacated EPA's 2018 decision to conditionally register three dicamba-based herbicides designed to be sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. Nonprofit groups argued the decision violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The court found ...
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that denied city and state officials' motions to dismiss residents' bodily integrity claim stemming from the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. City officials argued they were entitled to qualified immunity because they acted on professi...
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to sugarcane producers' annual burning of sugarcane fields. Nearby landowners argued that the burning has led to a diminution of their property values and that they have suffered and continue to suffer damage to their property, unnecessary ...
The Ninth Circuit ordered EPA to respond to a petition requesting that the Agency end the use of the pesticide tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP) in household pet products. An environmental group submitted an administrative petition to cancel the registration of TCVP in 2009, following a peer-reviewed study t...
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a lawsuit challenging the Executive Order that requires agencies to repeal two existing rules for each new rule promulgated. California, Minnesota, and Oregon argued that the order delayed or resulted in the undertaking of four rulemakings and that the...
The Trump Administration has aggressively rolled back prior administrations’ environmental regulations and natural resource policies, and critics of this agenda have turned to the judiciary. A remarkable string of federal court decisions has faulted the Administration for failing to follow the standard for agency policy change articulated in Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc.
A district court held invalid an amendment to the city of Toledo's charter that gave legal rights to Lake Erie. A local family farm argued the amendment was unconstitutionally vague and thus that it should be invalidated. The court found that the environmental rights of the lake and its watershed to...
The Fourth Circuit upheld a district court order that remanded to state court the city of Baltimore's climate change case against oil companies. The city alleged it sustained climate change-related injuries, including an increase in sea levels, storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, and extreme precip...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed as untimely Maryland's petition to review the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) approval of new flight paths to Washington National Airport. The state argued the new flight paths, which concentrated aircraft noise over its public lands, should be vacated because th...