Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
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On Thursday, October 12, 2023, Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment in favor of the United States Department of the Interior and Vineyard Wind, and denied...more
This week, the Court wrestles with res judicata issues stemming from the dismissal of an Endangered Species Act suit for lack of jurisdiction. The Court holds that claim preclusion bars plaintiffs from reasserting claims...more
In a per curiam decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed the Center for Biological Diversity’s (CBD) challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) process for assessing the status...more
On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted in part and denied in part the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ application for stay of the order issued by the U.S. District Court of Montana....more
Update June 17, 2020: On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filed an application to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the April 15, 2020, order (amended May 11, 2020) issued by the U.S. District Court of...more
January has been a busy month for the Fifth Circuit, which has issued a number of significant rulings....more
On April 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that environmental groups have standing to challenge the federal government’s killing of gray wolves in Idaho without conducting additional analysis...more
In WildEarth Guardians et al. v. U.S. Department of Justice, Case Nos. 17-16677, 17-16678, 17-16679 (Oct. 23, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed plaintiff-appellees case challenging the U.S....more
Does anyone think that a monkey has standing to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit? In Naruto v. Slater, 888 F.3d 418 (9th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said no, but not without carefully considering the...more
The use of beauty products is “an understudied source of environmental chemical exposures” with a disparate effect on women of color, George Washington University and Occidental College researchers argue. Ami R. Zota, et al.,...more
On May 8, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted, in part, a motion for summary judgment brought by plaintiffs in a suit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”)...more
On February 21, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District (collectively, “Water Contractors”) lacked Article III standing to...more
On October 11, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the U.S. Forest Service’s (“Forest Service”) petition for writ of certiorari to review the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Cottonwood Environmental...more
In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the dismissal of an environmental organization’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) claim, concluding that the organization lacked standing...more
Since the celebrated Supreme Court decision of Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, which for a time sidetracked the Antelopeconstruction of the Tellico Dam, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been recognized as a...more
On June 3, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held in Friends of Animals v. Jewell (No. 1:14-cv-00357) that Plaintiff Friends of Animals (“Plaintiff”) had Article III standing to pursue a constitutional...more
On September 18, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected the assertion by the California Sea Urchin Commission, California Abalone Association, and Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara...more