Litigation
The Year of Living Preemptively
Preemption is the question of whether a state’s legal rule is invalid because it conflicts with a federal statute. Environmentalists have been particularly concerned about this issue in recent years because state laws are often “greener” these days than federal ones. The Supreme Court has an unusual number of preemption cases on its docket this …
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CONTINUE READINGGreat Sources on the BP Oil Spill
The National Commission has added some valuable additional material to its cite: A multi-media resource, especially useful for students and journalists. For those who want to dive deeper, the Chief Counsel’s report is a great resource. It presents a good deal of evidence unfavorable to BP, but also significant criticism of Transocean and Halliburton. Of …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court won’t hear critical habitat cases
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Supreme Court today denied certiorari on two Endangered Species Act cases, Arizona Cattle Growers Association v. Salazar and Home Builders Association of Northern California v. US Fish and Wildlife Service. The cases were considered together because they raise the same issue: how the economic impacts of critical habitat designation should be …
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CONTINUE READINGJudge Feldman is still mad
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. You may remember Judge Martin Feldman from his decisions last summer enjoining enforcement of Interior’s first effort at a deepwater drilling moratorium, and more recently declaring that the Department must pay the legal fees of the plaintiffs in that case because it was in contempt of the injunction order. (For my take …
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CONTINUE READINGPreview of Coming Attractions: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut
The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced the scheduling of oral arguments in the biggest (actually, the only) environmental case of its current Term: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut. The justices will hear arguments on April 19th, and render their decision in this major climate change case by the end of June. Already, however, …
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CONTINUE READINGNinth Circuit allows landowner to challenge impaired water listing
UPDATED. See below. An odd judicial couple, conservative Jay Bybee (of torture memo fame) and liberal Stephen Reinhardt, have combined to issue an even odder Clean Water Act standing decision. In Barnum Timber v. EPA they ruled, over the dissent of District Judge James Gwin, sitting by designation, that a landowner had standing to challenge …
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CONTINUE READINGBriefly noted: four recent federal appellate decisions
Here are links to and brief descriptions of four interesting recent decisions from federal appellate courts: Wilderness Society v. Kane County, 10th Cir., en banc, 1/11/2011. This decision is the latest in a long-running dispute over the extent to which Kane County in southern Utah can authorize the use of off-road vehicles on federal lands. …
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CONTINUE READINGContempt? Not by Interior
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Conservative media and bloggers are making much of a ruling last week by Judge Martin Feldman of the Eastern District of Louisiana that the Department of Interior was in contempt of his June 2010 order enjoining enforcement of the May moratorium on new deepwater exploratory drilling for oil. The Washington Times, for …
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CONTINUE READINGCalif court tentatively rules AB 32 implementation unlawful
A California superior court has issued a proposed decision, not yet final, holding that ARB failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in its adoption of the Scoping Plan that is guiding its implementation of AB 32, California’s landmark climate change law. The ruling proposes to set aside ARB’s CEQA documentation and to …
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CONTINUE READINGJustice Brennan was not an Irishman
If you have access to The New Republic’s premium content online, or have a chance to buy the dead-tree version this week, make sure to do so. Justin Driver has written an outstanding essay on Justice William Brennan. It’s styled as a (positive) review of Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel’s new full-length biography of Brennan (pictured …
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