In an action challenging the State Department's issuance of a permit for a bridge over the Rio Grande, the court grants summary judgment for the government, ruling that the Secretary of State complied with the procedural requirements of the International Bridge Act and that plaintiff lacked standing...

Dismissing plaintiffs' suit for damages, the court finds no implied private cause of action under either the Rivers and Harbors Act or the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) for mining activities conducted prior to its passage. Plaintiffs suffered injuries from a flood allegedly caus...

In affirming the conviction for killing a bald eagle, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holds that the Eagle Protection Act modified Indian treaty rights to prohibit the taking of bald eagles without a permit. The court finds that reasonable conservation statutes affect Indian treaty rights when (1...

In an action for damages for radiation exposure suffered by plaintiff's decedent, the court issues an opinion supporting the judgment and denying defendants' motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and for a new trial. Decedent, an employee at defendants' nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, be...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holds that under §311 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, a tug will not be considered a "third party" in order to allow the owner of a discharging vessel to avoid liability for an oil spill occurring while the vessel is in the tow of the tug. Since United...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction to restrain the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing a ban on certain construction in California and from withholding federal funds from the state. The 1977 amendments to the Clean Air Act ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals remands to the district court a suit challenging Department of Commerce regulations which prohibit the taking of bowhead whales without permitting an exemption for subsistence hunting by Alaskan natives. Appellants' argument is that the federal regulations must fal...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state Clean Streams Law, which requires landowners to remedy sources of water pollution emanating from their land. After first rejecting appellants' argument that the statute was intended to apply only to pollution from mining activ...

Lakeside property owners sought an injunction barring discharges into the lake from a storm sewer pumping station owned and operated by the state. The pumping station was first constructed in 1961 and modified in 1978 in reduce the pollutant load of its discharge. Appellants argued before the trial ...

The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals vacates the district court's decision and remands the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) ocean dumping regulations because the Agency failed to explain why it established separate criteria for dredged and non-dredged wastes. Shortly after Cong...