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 ...
A district court dismissed with leave to amend a class-action challenge to a medical device company for selling talcum products in California. Plaintiffs argued the company violated California consumer protection laws by failing to warn them of carcinogenic ingredients in their products and engaging...
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 U.S. Supreme Court upheld an appellate court ruling that an oil refining company was responsible for $140 million in damages from a 2004 oil spill in the Delaware River. The owner of the vessel involved in the spill argued that the company it chartered to deliver crude oil from Venezuela to 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 denied summary judgment to environmental groups in a challenge to the U.S. Coast Guard's approval of a contingency plan for a Michigan oil pipeline. The groups argued that the plan failed to respond to a worst-case discharge, as required by the OPA, by failing to consider the need f...