Judged by the result, the Supreme Court's June 17 decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection looks like a model of judicial restraint. The court unanimously rejected a claim by landowners on Florida's northern Gulf Coast that they had suffered an unconstitutional taking of property after beach restoration by local governments turned their oceanfront homes into ocean-view lots separated from the water by 75 feet of new sand.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has given power plant operators in California and around the nation an important victory by upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's power to use cost-benefit analyses in deciding whether to require expensive retrofitting to minimize fish-kills.
Environmental groups, however, say they hope the Obama administration EPA will shift policy and take a stricter view of what existing power plants must do to reduce the impact on aquatic life from using ocean or river waters to cool the facilities.
WASHINGTON – Industry and environmental groups in California are awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that could determine how far the state's coastal power plants must go to reduce their fish-killing intake of ocean waters used to cool generating facilities.
WASHINGTON _ Home builders are praising and environmentalists criticizing the Supreme Court's decision allowing states to administer water pollution permitting programs without complying with a key provision in the federal Endangered Species Act.
WASHINGTON _ Home builders are hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that could broaden the impact of the federal Endangered Species Act on residential and commercial construction.
WASHINGTON _ A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a $500,000 fine against a California developer for "deep ripping" about two acres of wetlands on a Central Valley ranch while converting pasture to vineyards and orchards.
The justices divided 4-4 in an appeal by Angelo Tsakopoulos seeking to set aside penalties levied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for violating provisions of the Clean Water Act that require a permit before filling or dredging waterways.
WASHINGTON _ A U.S. Supreme Court decision tentatively upholding a Los Angeles zoning ordinance banning multiple adult businesses at the same location left lawyers for both sides predicting victory at an eventual trial.
WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Supreme Court gave state and local governments a green light to continue using temporary moratoria to limit or block development while devising long-range land use plans.
WASHINGTON _ Lake Tahoe area property owners seeking compensation for a moratorium on development first enacted two decades ago received a mixed reaction on January 7 from the two Supreme Court justices who hold the critical votes for their claims.
WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Supreme Court's latest take on takings law is getting two cheers from landowners and property rights advocates and grudging acceptance from land use regulators and environmentalists.
