Endangered Species Act (ESA)

The Ninth Circuit upheld a 2010 FWS rule designating critical habitat for the threatened Santa Ana sucker, a small freshwater fish native to several California rivers and streams. In 2004, FWS…

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service violated ESA §7 when it failed to reinitiate consultation after FWS designated critical habitat for the Canada lynx on National Forest land. In…

The Ninth Circuit upheld the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE's) approval of oil spill response plans for an oil company's leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi…

The D.C. Circuit held that building and development associations lacked standing to challenge consent decrees that require FWS to determine, in accordance with a settlement-defined schedule,…

A district court adopted a magistrate judge's report and recommendation and ordered FWS to finalize and approve a comprehensive conservation plan for five national wildlife refuges in the…

A district court held that FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the ESA and NEPA when they issued 50-year incidental take permits to a farm to take the northern spotted…

A district court held that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the ESA, and NEPA when it authorized the U.S. Navy to take large numbers…

A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with their ESA lawsuit challenging OSM's issuance of SMCRA permits for two surface coal mines. The groups alleged that OSM…

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision affirming the U.S. Forest Service's decision to implement the Little Slate Project, a 2,598-acre timber thinning sale within the Nez Perce…

The Ninth Circuit upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') biological opinion regarding the impact of continuing water extraction in the California Central Valley on…