Articles

Defenders of Wildlife and several other environmental organizations filed suit yesterday against the Service, challenging the agency's decision not to list the lower 48-population of the wolverine as a distinct population segment.  The lawsuit asserts three claims, two based upon the Service's implementation of its 1996 DPS policy, an ...

Find the press release and the complaint here.  PLF represents the California Cattlemen's Association, the California Forestry Association, and the Congress of Racial Equality.  The central contention of the suit is that the polar bear's listing is unfounded, given that the polar bear's status is better now than in all recor ...

This morning, PLF hosted a news conference to discuss its recently filed lawsuit challenging the listing of the polar bear.  Below is the prepared statement of PLF Principal Attorney Reed Hopper: Good Morning, my name is Reed Hopper. I am a principal attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation. I am the lead attorney in the … ...

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the government’s appeal of a Ninth Circuit injunction of certain military training exercises. Several environmentalist groups contended, and the Ninth Circuit agreed, that the Navy’s sonar training—designed to detect silent nu ...

Yesterday Center for Biological Diversity et al. filed a partial settlement with Judge Wilken of the Northern District of California.  (CBD's press release is here).  The settlement would cover CBD's claims against the Service for failure to designate polar bear critical habitat under the ESA and failure to establish nonlethal d ...

Yesterday the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in American Bird Conservancy v. Federal Communications Commission.  The case concerned whether the Communication Act's judicial review provision for challenges to an FCC order is exclusive, or whether an order can also be challenged under the ESA's citizen suit provision.  The plai ...

With several interviews of Alaskans. … ...

In an opinion issued today, the Ninth Circuit in Salmon Spawning & Recovery Alliance v. Gutierrez held that a coalition of salmon conservation groups lacked standing to pursue two claims against the National Marine Fisheries Service and other agencies arising out of a 1999 treaty between the US and Canada governing salmon harvests.  The g ...

From today's San Diego Tribune: "Not long after Torgen Johnson moved into his ocean-view house on top of a coastal bluff at Pacific Avenue, a sudden landslide triggered by a rainstorm claimed a chunk of his property. . . .  Johnson is now building a 50-foot-long sea wall below his house to protect it from … ...