The Court holds that a bankruptcy trustee may not abandon a hazardous waste site when such abandonment would violate reasonable state health and safety laws. The Court notes that before enactment of the Bankruptcy Reform Act in 1978, the courts had judicially limited the trustee's power of abandonme...

The court holds that, on their face, provisions of the New Jersey Solid Waste Management Act designed to protect the waste disposal business from infiltration by organized crime by subjecting license applicants to disclosure, investigation, and fingerprinting requirements do not violate the federal ...

In Round III of the ongoing review of the Secretary of the Interior's Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) regulations, the court sustains in part and remands in part regulations concerning hydrology and geology permitting, coal mine waste, unsuitable lands, revegetation, siltation str...

The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) does not allow it to assert personal jurisdiction over non-resident defendants whose hazardous wastes eventually ended up at a disposal site in Rhode Island, but that it may do so under Rhode Isla...

The court rules that ranchers cannot, under §1063 of the Unlawful Inclosures of Public Lands Act (UIA), erect livestock fences on public or private property if the fences prohibit wildlife access to public land. The court holds that defendant's fence, even though on private land, except where it cr...

The court holds that civil penalties assessed under §311(b)(6) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) for leakage of oil or hazardous substances are deductible for income tax purposes. The court first rules that civil penalties imposed under FWPCA §311(b)(6) are tax-deductible. The tes...

The court rules that attorney fees are available under §304(d) of the Clean Air Act to persons intervening in government enforcement actions only where the government is not diligently prosecuting the action. Appellant National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) had intervened in the federal enforcem...

The court holds that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 grants defendant access to land under plaintiff's control so that defendant may obtain soil samples for testing in connection with a claim for response costs pursuant to §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liabi...

The court rules that actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture concerning sewage treatment construction grants fall under the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The banks had provided interim financing to the municipal...

The court holds that a National Park Service (NPS) ban on hunting and trapping in national parks and recreation areas does not violate either the Service's Organic Act or the Administrative Procedure Act. The court first rules that the National Rifle Association has standing to sue on behalf of tits...