The court holds that the purchaser of a ranch lacks standing to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's decision not to renew the previous owner's grazing permit when the decision was made one year prior to the purchase of the ranch. The court holds that the purchaser did not demonstrate a personal inju...

The court holds that genuine issues of material fact remain about whether a flow control and recycling ordinance violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and remands the action. A local ordinance requires that all solid waste generated in the town be disposed of at a specific regional ...

The court holds that a bankruptcy court's order allowing a trustee to abandon a contaminated site that was part of the bankrupt estate did not violate the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Midlantic National Bank v. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 16 ELR 20278 (1986), on the abandonm...

The court holds that the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA) does not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses of the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, affirmed an individual's conviction for possessing eagle feathers without a permit. The BGEPA prohibits the taking or possession ...

The court holds that two Michigan state legislators lack standing to challenge the Secretary of the Interior's approval of gaming compacts between the state of Michigan and four Native American tribes. The legislators—one a member of the state house, and the other a member of the state senate—cl...

The court holds that the take provision of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applied to landowners, does not violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. After purchasing property, the landowners sought to develop it, but were prevented from doing so because of the restrictions placed on the land under the ...

The court holds that the Endangered Species Act's (ESA's) application to private lands in order to protect an endangered species that lives entirely within one state does not violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court first holds that the regulated activity in question—construction of a housing d...

The court affirms the dismissal of property owners' claim that a consulting firm negligently announced that land neighboring the owner's property was suitable as a potential landfill site even though the land was farmland and, thus, could not be used for a landfill. The landowners claimed that this ...

The court holds that the Emergency Low-Income Housing Preservation Act's (ELIHPA's) and the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act's (LIHPRHA's) mortgage prepayment restrictions did not effect a per se taking of residential apartment building owners' property. The Acts prohib...

The court reverses a district court's decision dismissing building owners' U.S. Commerce Clause claims against a waste authority for lack of standing. The building owners maintained that the authority's implementation of a waste generation fee structure effectively forced them to use the local facil...