A local ordinance prohibiting drive-in theater screens that are visible from public streets or highways is a valid exercise of the police power. Drive-in theaters are a special class of hazard compared to neon signs and other lights along the highway. The ordinance was intended to further highway sa...

The Public Service Commission's approval of a transmission line location is not sufficiently important to warrant an environmental impact statement under the New Mexico Environmental Protection Act. The Act, however, does require a determination by the Commission that the location is justified in li...

The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirms a circuit court ruling that a local ordinance regulating signs in the central business district of Baltimore is invalid. The court holds that the sole purpose of the ordinance is the achievement of an aesthetically pleasing result, with no thought of enhancin...

The court grants summary judgment compelling Secretary of the Interior Morton and Commissioner Armstrong of the Bureau of Reclamation to remove from within the boundaries of Rainbow Bridge National Monument any waters of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon unit impounded there. The court holds that this...

A lower court ruling which after a full trial upheld as reasonable a HUD threshold determination not to file an impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act for a proposed housing project is affirmed. A court should proceed beyond the administrative record to an evidentiary hearing i...

A city can regulate the placement of signs and billboards along freeways as a valid exercise of its police power to abate nuisances without complying with the law governing the adoption of zoning ordinances. When a specific act concerning nuisances appears to conflict with a general zoning statute, ...

The final supplementary environmental impact statement for the New Melones Dam Project, in conjunction with the previously filed statement, complies fully with the requirements of NEPA, and the request for a preliminary injunction against construction is denied. The impact statement need not cover i...

Five tribal members seek to cancel portions of a lease of tribal lands for operation of the Four Corners Power Plant because the portions do not adequately protect the tribe from the plant's air pollution. The court dismisses the suit, however, since the Navajo Tribe is an indispensable party that, ...

A threshold determination by the Navy that a proposed housing project would not have sufficient environmental impact to warrant a formal NEPA impact statement is upheld since the Navy took into account numerous environmental factors when reaching its decision. NEPA does not set up existing zoning re...

In a suit to enjoin construction of the Duck River dam and reservior, the court dismisses constitutional claims, grants summary judgment in favor of defendant's claim under the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, and reserves judgment on a claim alleged under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)...