Rapanos v. United States
Supreme Court rules EPA “navigable waters” definition illegal
Back in 1989, Michigan developer John Rapanos was simply clearing his property to build homes and a shopping mall when he became so ensnared in a regulatory quagmire, it took the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve. John's troubles began when he pulled up some trees on his 54-acre site and filled the stump holes with sand. Federal regulators claimed an a ...
Gunnison Sage-Grouse Endangered Species Act Litigation
Drawing a line on federal power under the Endangered Species Act
Colorado and two if its counties challenged the listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as "threatened" for lack of evidence, and challenged the designation of critical habitat as overbroad. For years, the affected states, counties, and landowners partnered to conserve the species while maintaining economic viability but the federal government ignored ...
Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability, et al. v. U.S. Department of Interior, et al.
Flocks of California gnatcatchers need no federal protection
The federal government has expanded its reach using the Endangered Species Act to cover spurious "subspecies." The ESA does not define "subspecies" and the Fish and Wildlife Service has offered no definition of its own. Instead, it simply announces when it has determined a "subspecies" to exist and, relying on the subspecies' smaller numbers relati ...
Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency
Property owners challenge EPA’s navigable waters overreach
One of the longest-running legal battles in the history of the Clean Water Act doesn't involve mega-polluters dumping toxic chemicals into America's major rivers and lakes. Rather, it involves a couple who wanted to build a home on less than an acre of land in a residential neighborhood. And now, that case could have ramifications for property owne ...
Otay Mesa Property, L.P. v. Department of the Interior
Fairy shrimp critical habitat designation violates the ESA
Three property owners in San Diego County own 57 acres that they planned to use for a new recycling center and landfill. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the property as critical habitat for the endangered Riverside fairy shrimp, the development plans were stymied. The owners challenged the designation because there's no evidence ...
Uintah County v. Zinke
Landowners attack unrestrained federal “wild lands” policy
In 2010, the Department of Interior issued an order known as the "Wild Lands policy" that directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to preserve "wilderness characteristics" in federal areas not covered by other wilderness protection laws. BLM then imposes restrictive land use regulations on those areas and inserts itself into local, project-leve ...
Brannan v. State of Texas
Defending beachfront property rights against “rolling easements”
After a 1998 tropical storm moved the vegetation line landward of Texas beachfront homes, state officials informed the beachfront homeowners that, based on its policy of considering the public beach to extend inland to the vegetation line (wherever it goes), the homes were encroachments on a public beach and subject to removal for violating the Sta ...
St. Johns River Water Management District v. Koontz
There’s no “off site” exception to Fifth Amendment’s takings clause
Coy A. Koontz sought to develop commercial land, most of which lies within a riparian habitat protection zone in Orange County, Florida. He applied for a dredge and fill permit with the St. Johns Water Management District, which agreed to grant the permit only on the condition that he place a conservation easement over his land, and perform mitig ...
People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. Fish and Wildlife Service
Prairie dogs and property owners: Both need protection from massive federal overreach
For decades, the federal Endangered Species Act has simultaneously stifled responsible conservation of the Utah prairie dog, while barring property owners from using their own land as they wish. So PLF asked the United States Supreme Court to step in, to protect both the prairie dog and property rights of the people who share the same land. Represe ...