On December 27, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a petition seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promptly commence and conclude a long-promised rulemaking to consider reducing the existing household lead-dust levels that primarily affect children. Judge Schroeder…
Last March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit revered the District Court’s ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) could not subject the Utah Prairie Dog to Endangered Species Act-protected status because it was an intrastate species found only in Utah and not on federal…
On December 29, 2017, the Montana Supreme Court decided an important Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), known also as Superfund, case involving the application of Montana state law in an ongoing federal CERCLA cleanup effort. The case is Atlantic Richfield Company v. Montana Second Judicial District Court. Atlantic Richfield…
In late December 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued two significant administrative law decisions in the cases of Safari Club Int’l and Nat’l Rifle Assoc. of Am. v. Zinke (decided December 22, 2017) and Clarian Health West, LLC, v. Hargan (decided December 26,…
Public notice of some very significant regulatory actions has been provided in the waning days of 2017. On December 28, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ADPRM) at 82 FR 61507 soliciting comments from the public as it considers proposing new state guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)…
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of Management and Budget(Administration) has posted the Fall 2017 Agency Statements of Regulatory Priorities, and what follows is a selection of future environmental regulatory actions a number of departments and agencies are proposing to take. 1. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). a. EPA…
The states employ unclaimed property laws (also referred to as escheat laws) to determine if property owned by one person but that is in the possession of another person is subject to the state’s control after the period of abandonment set by state law has passed. In recent years, states…
The real estate industry has been on a high after the legalization of marijuana, but as we examined in “Part 1: The Real Estate Bloom,” getting involved in this budding industry comes with risks, the majority of which stem from marijuana being listed as an illegal Schedule I drug under…
On December 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in the case of Town of Westport, et al., v. Monsanto Company, et al., affirmed the District Court’s ruling granting the defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment in a products liability case involving the sale of products containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The…
On November 22, the Texas Court of Appeals, sitting in Fort Worth, decided a case involving mandatory sanctions awarded under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA). In Rich v. Range Resources Corporation, et al., the Court of Appeals determined that although that denial of sanctions was erroneous, it was not harmful;…