This is one of the earliest cases based upon the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The court grants a stay pending appeal to the Fifth Circuit. While the extensive federal project opposed by the plaintiffs is not described, there is apparently no disagreement that proceeding with constructio...

The decision of a trial court or an appellate court, denying a preliminary injunction partially on the grounds that plaintiffs were not likely to prevail on the merits, does not so establish the "law of the case" as to estop either the parties or the court from proceeding with the case on its merits...

A broad view of "interests" and "adequate representation" should be taken when interpreting Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly in environmental questions. Intervention by parties with differing interests permits differing approaches to be considered by the court. Certain M...

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, an exchange of lands by the Secretary of Interior is not reviewable by the courts. The Secretary of Interior has full authority to make an exchange under 16 U.S.C. §668dd, and, even if he errs in fact or in law, the courts have no jurisdiction to interfere....

The pervasiveness of federal regulation in the field of air commerce, the intensity of the national interest in this regulation, and the nature of air commerce itself require the unavoidable conclusion that state and local regulation in that area has been preempted. A state or local government canno...

A federal district court has admiralty jurisdiction in a suit by a state for damages to compensate for injury to its waters by an oil discharge from the defendants' shore facility. In this type of case the tort takes place, not where the negligent act occurs but, rather, where the act or omission be...

State highway planners cannot evade the requirements of NEPA, the National Historic Preservation Act, §4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act and other federal directives, by so segmenting a proposed highway that certain sections do not have federal aid requests. The beltway around Richmond, ...

This is an order denying a motion by defendants to amend the preliminary injunction granted against the construction of the Century Freeway (I-105) in Los Angeles County. That injunction, granted July 7, 1972, and the opinion supporting it, are found at 2 ELR 20425. Much of the present opinion is a ...

Certain parties are permitted to intervene out of time as amicus curiae, and their motion to strike a paragraph of the opinion of the Circuit Court, on the ground that the issue discussed is not necessary to the decision, is granted. The offending paragraph concerned the state's preparation of a NEP...

The D.C. Circuit is the "appropriate circuit" pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1857c-5 (the Clean Air Act) to determine questions that are common to all state implementation plans approved by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Where, in every state implementation plan, the Administrato...