178 results for 'nos:"Environmental Matters - Other Suits"'.
J. Hicks grants the Dep't. of the Interior/Bureau of Land Management's motion to dismiss. The nonprofit wild horse research, journalism, and public education group challenges the government's proposed "gather" of excess horses for population control purposes. Certain US Code precludes liability in federal government actors, and cited case law remedies are not available against a federal agency. Relief specific to a concluded gather is moot, though not as to future gathers. The bureau's motion to dismiss the First Amendment cause of action is granted as it fails to establish a qualified right to view “humane” gathers. Leave to amend is granted.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Hicks , Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv372, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Agency, First Amendment
J. Ezra partially grants Texas’ motion to dismiss after the federal government sued the state and Governor Greg Abbott over its “buoy barrier” in the Rio Grande, which was installed in the national water boundary “without any federal authorization.” While the United States can proceed with claims under the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, it cannot pursue claims based on the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo because the treaty is “not self-executing” and does not “provide any specific standard or rule of decision for a domestic court to follow.” Nonetheless, while Texas has asserted that it has “territorial rights” to protect itself from a migrant “invasion,” “the Founding Fathers conceptualized invasions as a part of war” and not due to migration.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Ezra, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv853, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Government, Immigration
J. Moss denies the state of Florida's motion seeking a stay of an injunction entered in a suit brought under the Endangered Species Act pending appeal. Staying the decision would, in effect, deny the environmental groups the preliminary injunctive relief they sought, so the public interest and risk of injury to those groups weigh against a stay. Florida, meanwhile, has not demonstrated that it is likely to suffer an irreparable injury absent a stay, nor that it is likely to prevail on appeal.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv119, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Procedure, Environment
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J. DeMarchi finds in partial favor of environmentalists after they sued the federal government for not properly putting into place a plan that can rebuild the Pacific sardine population, which was declared overfished in 2019. The government prevails on a few minor claims regarding what environmental impact statements are needed to resolve the matter, but environmentalists have shown the feds did not put in place a plan that will prevent overfishing or rebuild the sardine population by the deadline set under the Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Court: USDC Northern District of California, Judge: DeMarchi, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 5:21cv5407, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment
J. Zipps denies the Tohono O'odham Nation, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Archaeology Southwest, and the Center for Biological Diversity's motion for restraining order and injunctive relief concerning claims that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated the National Historic Preservation Act by authorizing the construction of a transmission line without taking measures to assess the impact it would have on the Traditional Cultural Properties and local Native American tribes. The land management authority presented sufficient evidence in court that it properly solicited feedback from the tribes during the process and invited them to consult on various assessments on the historic property.
Court: USDC Arizona, Judge: Zipps, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 4:24cv34, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Construction, Government, Native Americans
J. Moss denies the state of Florida's motion for a stay of a prior order granting partial summary judgment to environmental groups in a suit alleging that federal regulators improperly delegated permitting authority to Florida regulators, and denies its motion for final judgment while granting its alternative request for relief in the form of partial final judgment. A limited stay in this case “is neither workable nor desirable,” and would require the Court to develop a program splitting work between different agencies over those agencies’ objections and result in needless redundancy. The final judgment motion is denied because one count, regarding the Army Corps of Engineers’ retained waters list, has remaining controversies to resolve. This count, however, is substantially distinct from the other counts in its legal theory and the administrative record it involves, so final, appealable judgment is entered as to the other counts.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv119, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Environment
J. Lamberth grants a motion by the Department of the Interior and other federal defendants to sever the offshore wind farm opponents' action seeking to challenge approvals of two such projects into separate actions for each project, and partially grants the projects' developers' motion to intervene. Judicial economy and efficiency factors favor severance, and the claims to be severed do not present common questions of law or fact. The developer of one project is permitted to intervene in this case, but the motion to intervene is denied as to the other project's developer, given the severance of claims related to its project.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Lamberth, Filed On: April 10, 2024, Case #: 1:24cv141, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Environment, Agency
J. Whitehead awards the nonprofit organization $359,100 in attorney fees following a consent decree for its complaint that the state government office enacted hatchery programs that affected the threatened Puget Sound steelhead and did not undergo required review, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The attorneys' requested rates range from $290 per hour to $700 per hour based on the level of experience, which are reasonable.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Whitehead, Filed On: March 30, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv169, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Attorney Fees
J. Gleason grants the federal government's motion for summary judgment regarding a dispute with the state over the closure of 180 miles of river to non-subsistence uses in order to conserve the fish population for rural residents who would be allowed limited subsistence use of the section. The state authorized gillnet fishing by all state residents on three days. "The State has failed to create a genuine dispute of material fact as to federal preemption." The federal government is entitled to a permanent injunction as it has shown irreparable harm to its ability to enforce rural subsistence priority with the state's conflicting emergency orders.
Court: USDC Alaska, Judge: Gleason, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv54, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment
J. Contreras offers a mixed bag to both the National Parks Conservation Association and the Department of the Interior, which the association is suing for allegedly failing to protect Florida’s Biscayne National Park. ON the one hand, the federal government has delayed the implementation of a marine reserve zone for too long, but on the other, it has not issued a final agency action that the court can review for being arbitrary and capricious. The association is owed FOIA attorney fees. The government is ordered to propose a zone designation as soon as it can.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Contreras, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv3706, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment, Agency
J. Du grants the animal rights activists' motion for summary judgment. The activists allege the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, and the Nevada Bureau of Land Management violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by a recent roundup of wild horses. Reducing livestock grazing to increase wild horse management levels was not reasonable because it would have undermined the roundup's stated purpose to “prevent undue... degradation...and to restore ecological balance.” The bureau must prepare a herd management area plan and reanalyze foreseeable effects and significance of its roundup alternatives on wildfire risks.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Du, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv34, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment, Agency
J. Hardy approved a consent decree between two environmental organizations and a steel manufacturer, finding the manufacturer will pay $5 million in penalties and settlement payments, plus $3 million towards litigation costs, after a control room fire at the steel manufacturer’s plant spurred a Clean Air Act violation complaint.
Court: USDC Western District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Hardy, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 2:19cv484, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, Environment, Negligence
J. Cooper denies, in part, the Bureau of Land Management's motion for summary judgment on several conservation groups' challenge to the sale of 120,000 acres in Wyoming for drilling. The agency erroneously assessed the sale's impact on groundwater and wildlife, and did not explain how its analysis of greenhouse gas emission affected its decision.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cooper, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1871, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Environment, Property
J. Dale grants in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment regarding their challenge of Idaho Senate Bill 1211, which authorizes wolf trapping and snaring in grizzly bear habitat, and which they claim will lead to the unlawful "take" of grizzly bears in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The group seek to enjoin the authorization of recreational wolf trapping and snaring until the state obtains an incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups have shown they have standing and provided evidence that lawfully set wolf traps and snares are reasonably likely to take grizzly bears. The state is enjoined from authorizing wolf trapping and snaring in grizzly bear habitat except when it is reasonably certain that almost all grizzly bears will be in dens: December 1 to February 28.
Court: USDC Idaho, Judge: Dale, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv479, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment
J. Hummel orders an environmental protection group focused on protecting the Hudson River to produce documents that it claimed was protected information on the basis of attorney-client privilege, attorney work product and material prepared in anticipation of litigation. The group is suing a recycling center for violating the Clean Water Act. The documentation involves communications between the group and a non-party individual, who the court finds was neither an employee of the group’s counsel nor its own in-house counsel.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hummel, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv1025, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Discovery
J. Calabretta approves two consent decrees between the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and several companies, including Exxon and Chevron, regarding closed landfills in Solano County. The parties agree the settlement was negotiated in good faith, and is fair, reasonable and in the public interest.
Court: USDC Eastern District of California, Judge: Calabretta, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv1739, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Environment