Litigation

More on Sackett v. EPA

As Rick notes below, the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case arising from enforcement of the wetlands permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act, Sackett v. EPA (the link is to the 9th Circuit’s opinion). SCOTUSblog has links to the briefs at the cert stage. Rick explained that the genesis of this …

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Supreme Court Grants Review in Clean Water Act/Wetlands Case

2012 is shaping up as a busy year for environmental law at the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, as the Court recessed for the summer, the justices granted certiorari in a second environmental case that it will hear and decide in its 2011-12 Term: Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 10-1062. Sackett involves a development dispute between an Idaho …

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Court allows California to continue developing cap and trade program pending appeal

This just in: Late today, a California appellate court granted the State’s request to stay (in other words, lift), pending appeal, the injunction issued by the lower court in Ass’n of Irritated Residents vs. CARB, the environmental justice community challenge to California’s work so far under its Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).  Absent any …

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How the Financial Crisis Destroyed Standing Doctrine

Environmental scholars are very familiar — perhaps too familiar — with how the constitutionalization of standing doctrine has restricted the ability of environmental groups to challenge agency actions.  I’ve recently read several books about the financial crisis, and it’s occurred to me that Wall Street innovation may have made traditional standing doctrine a dead letter. My …

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Supreme Court Grants Review in Montana Rivers/Public Trust Case

Understandably, today most U.S. Supreme Court mavens focused their attention on several new opinions  the Court issued in key cases–including the major climate change decision (in American Electric Power v. Connecticut) about which Dan, Jonathan and I all blogged earlier today.  Not to be overlooked, however, is the fact that today the Court also granted …

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Conn. v. AEP: Never Underestimate Congressional Power to Do Damage

Dan’s and Rick’s posts very helpfully summarize the impacts of the Court’s decision today.  (They were also probably written at the same time: great minds think alike).  But I’m a little more pessimistic than Dan is concerning Congressional action.  He suggests that the decision makes it more complex for Congress to repeal EPA jurisdiction since …

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Supreme Court Rejects States’ Climate Change Nuisance Lawsuit

The Supreme Court today issued its long-awaited decision in an important climate change case, American Electric Power v. Connecticut.  http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-174.pdf   As expected, the Court rejected a public nuisance lawsuit that a coalition of states and private land trusts had brought against the owners of Midwestern coal-fired power plants, challenging their massive greenhouse gas emissions on …

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Dueling Orders and Lots of Confusion in AB 32 Case

Yesteday, I described a California Court of Appeals order lifting the injunction preventing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from implementing its cap and trade program.  The order was apparently issued last Friday afternoon.   Even in this age of instantaneous communication, however, apparently neither the Superior Court judge in the case, Earnest H. Goldsmith, nor the lead …

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Waiting for Connecticut v. AEP

I like New York in June.  The Supreme Court, not so much. June is when the Court finishes up its term and releases any decisions still pending.  This year, that means we will soon get a ruling on Connecticut v. AEP, the public nuisance climate case, which was argued in April.  Just so you can keep score at home, …

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