March 29, 2021

"The Supreme Court will decide whether Kentucky’s Republican attorney general can defend the state’s restrictive abortion law against the wishes of its Democratic governor, the justices announced.

The law would effectively ban after 15 weeks a common procedure used to terminate a pregnancy in the second trimester. A trial court struck down the law as unconstitutional and a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agreed.

But the case, which the Supreme Court will hear in the term that begins in the fall, does not ask the court to reconsider its abortion jurisprudence.

The question instead is whether the appeals court was right to bar Attorney General Daniel Cameron from taking over the case to further challenge the ruling.”

Friday, April 2, 2021

"Two Indigenous communities in New Mexico have sued EPA over a revised federal rule that lifts protections for many streams, creeks and wetlands across the nation, saying the federal government is violating its trust responsibility to Native American tribes.

The pueblos of Jemez and Laguna are the latest to raise concerns over inadequate protections for local water sources in the desert Southwest. The challenge filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico follows a similar case brought in 2020 by the Navajo Nation, the nation's largest Native American tribe, and several environmental groups."

March 30, 2021

"New Mexico sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over concerns that the federal agency hasn't done enough to vet plans for a multibillion-dollar facility to store spent nuclear fuel in the state, arguing that the project would endanger residents, the environment and the economy.

New Jersey-based Holtec International wants to build a complex in southeastern New Mexico where tons of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants around the nation could be stored until the federal government finds a permanent solution. State officials worry that New Mexico will become a permanent dumping ground for the radioactive material.

The complaint filed in federal court contends the commission overstepped its authority regarding Holtec's plans and that granting a license to the company could result in "imminent and substantial endangerment" to New Mexico. The state cited the potential for surface and groundwater contamination, disruption of oil and gas development in one of the nation's most productive basins, and added strain on emergency response resources."

April 1, 2021

"The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against five of the largest oil companies, writing that New York City tried to bite off more than it could chew with an overly ambitious environmental suit.

The ruling undercuts similar complaints by nearly two dozen other municipalities to hold Big Oil liable for the economic effects of climate change."

April 2, 2021

"On March 23, the Second Circuit issued its opinion in N.Y. Dep’t of Enviro. Conservation v. FERC, Case No. 19-1610 (i.e., the “Empire Pipeline” case). The case concerns the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC or Commission) determination that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) waived its water quality certification authority with regard to FERC’s issuance of a gas pipeline certificate when NYSDEC sought to extend its review period beyond the one-year deadline under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act) by agreeing with the applicant to “post-date” the filing date of its water quality certification application by several weeks."

April 1, 2021

"Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the formation of a new Missing & Murdered Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS) to provide leadership and direction for cross-departmental and interagency work involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. The MMU will help put the full weight of the federal government into investigating these cases and marshal law enforcement resources across federal agencies and throughout Indian country. "

April 1, 2021

"A scant 38 days after oral argument, Florida finds itself at the end of the road in its quest to limit the amount of water that Georgia uses in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett in Florida v. Georgia, the court agreed with the recommendations of a court-appointed special master, overruled Florida’s “exceptions” to his report, and dismissed the case."

April 3, 2021

"As the Klamath Basin approaches one of its driest summers on record, Upper Klamath Lake is already being subjected to a three-way tug-of-war in court. While the Klamath Tribes want water to remain in the lake, irrigators want it diverted to the Klamath Project — and neither party wants to see more water sent down the Klamath River.

Earlier this week, Klamath Irrigation District filed an emergency motion against the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath County Circuit Court, requesting a judge bar the agency from releasing water from Upper Klamath Lake for flushing flows in the Klamath River this spring.

The motion comes after the Klamath Tribes filed a notice of intent to sue the Bureau of Reclamation earlier this year if the agency allows the lake to drop below 4,142 feet during C’waam and Koptu (Lost River and shortnose sucker) spawning season in April and May. As of April 1, the lake was below 4,141 feet — the lowest it’s been at this time in years."

April 1, 2021

"A federal judge has blocked a Nevada project that would expand livestock grazing across 400 squares miles of some of the highest priority sage grouse habitat in the West and accused the government of deliberately misleading the public by underestimating damage the cattle could do to the land.

The ruling comes as scientists continue to document dramatic declines in greater sage grouse populations across 11 Western states — down 65% since 1986 and 37% since 2002, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey."

March 31, 2021

"A federal judge ruled that e-bike opponents can move forward with their legal challenge of a National Park Service policy that allows use of electric bicycles.

Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that NPS made a "nonsensical" argument in seeking to dismiss the case filed by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The lawsuit challenges an August 2019 order signed by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that required NPS to regulate e-bikes in the same way as human-powered bicycles on nonmotorized trails."

Clay Smith, the American Indian Law Deskbook chief editor, summarizes Indian law decisions assigned headnotes by Westlaw to facilitate the Deskbook’s annual revision.

Please reach out to Clay for questions regarding obtaining a copy of the American Indian Law Deskbook.

If you are interested in following cannabis law developments, please sign up for the AG Alliance cannabis newsletter by emailing Cole White at CWhite@AGAlliance.org.

We rely on our readers to send us links for the WAGLAC Newsletter. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two weeks) case, statute or article relating to natural resources, environment, Indian law or federalism that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the Newsletter, please send it to Clive Strong. For a complete database of all previously published WAGLAC newsletters, please follow the link below.