The Seventh Circuit held that a motel owner's challenge to a city ordinance that designated its property as a potential target for acquisition is unripe. The owner's claim, whether labeled an equal protection claim or a takings claim, is subject to the special ripeness standards for constitutional p...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a timber company's claim challenging the U.S. Forest Service's Historical Preservation Plan (HPP) for the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark and Vicinity in the Bighorn National Forest. The Forest Service rejected the company's challenge to the HPP, w...

The First Circuit denied an electric company's petition for review of three Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders that asserted mandatory licensing authority over the company's hydroelectric project, required the company to install gauges to measure stream flow at the project, and requi...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed solid waste disposal companies' claims that local solid waste flow control ordinances violate the Commerce Clause. The companies lack standing to claim that the ordinances are facially discriminatory against out-of-state interests. The ordinances prohibit the export of an...

The Ninth Circuit held unripe nonprofit groups' action to obtain a declaration that a U.S. Department of Energy order that outlines the management of defense radioactive waste is invalid. Delayed review will not cause any real cognizable hardship, but intervention at this point would unduly interfer...

The First Circuit upheld the dismissal of an oil company's lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board from imposing a fine against it for releasing fuel from a leaking underground storage tank system into the environment. Because the proceedings are ongoing before the boar...

The Federal Circuit affirms a lower court decision finding property owners' takings claim against the National Marine Fisheries Service unripe. The owners sought to harvest redwood trees on their property. After learning that the cost of an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species A...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the Secretary of Commerce's decision to allocate a portion of the U.S. harvest of Pacific whiting to the Makah Indian Tribe. Because the "best available scientific information" supports a sliding scale method of allocation, the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') rel...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) produced a physical taking of a company's mineral rights. In 1937, the company sold the surface rights of land in the Daniel Boone National Forest to the United States but it retained the ...

A district court enjoined and vacated a final U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule that reduced protection afforded to the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by changing its status from "endangered" to "threatened" in some regions. The FWS' interpretation of "significant portion o...