Environmental

  • June 18, 2026

    Colo. Mine Says Permit Order Would Be 'Death Penalty'

    The owner of a Colorado mine claimed in state court Wednesday that regulators intentionally delayed a permitting process by misleading the owner to get the mine closed permanently, in violation of the owner's due process rights.

  • June 18, 2026

    10th Circ. Revives Air Force Chemical Cleanup Mandate Case

    The Tenth Circuit has revived a case alleging New Mexico exceeded its authority by requiring cleanup of so-called forever chemicals at a U.S. Air Force base in the state, finding the district court erred by claiming it did not have jurisdiction over the dispute.

  • June 18, 2026

    Tribe Looks To Block Border Wall Through Ariz. Reservation

    An Arizona Indigenous nation is asking a D.C. federal court to block the Department of Homeland Security from constructing a 62-mile border wall through its reservation, alleging that reports of federal contractors destroying ancestral sites in adjacent areas confirm the tribe's decision to oppose the wall construction.

  • June 18, 2026

    Otter Tail To Pay $30M To Settle PVC Price-Fix Claims

    Otter Tail has agreed to pay $30 million to resolve certain claims in litigation alleging it and two subsidiaries conspired with other polyvinyl chloride pipe producers to fix prices, the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

  • June 17, 2026

    Feds Turn Over List Of Exhibits Pulled From National Parks

    The Trump administration on Wednesday turned over to a federal judge in Boston a list of at least 50 signs, exhibits and other materials that have been removed from U.S. national parks and historic sites under a presidential directive to cull items that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."

  • June 17, 2026

    Wash. Hydro Workers Sue Feds To Save Collective Bargaining

    United Power Trades Organization, which represents hundreds of hydropower dam workers employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, launched a lawsuit in Seattle federal court Tuesday seeking to preserve its collective bargaining rights after the Trump administration ended its union contract pursuant to a March 2025 executive order.

  • June 17, 2026

    NC County Liable For Highest PFAS Levels In State, Suit Says

    A grassroots environmental group asked a North Carolina federal court to prohibit a county from polluting local waters with forever chemicals, contending that the county knows that thousands of residents are imperiling their health by drinking PFAS-laden water but has refused to do anything about it.

  • June 17, 2026

    Colo. Says It's Clear: EPA Rebuffed Haze Plan To Prop Up Coal

    Colorado on Tuesday urged the Tenth Circuit to vacate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rejection of the state's plan to limit regional haze, calling the agency's argument that closing a coal-fired power plant might be unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment a "pretext for propping up" the industry.

  • June 17, 2026

    US Pays Energy Co. $765M To Give Up Offshore Wind Leases

    The Trump administration has agreed to pay Invenergy $765 million to voluntarily give up its affiliates' four offshore wind leases in the New York Bight, California's central coast and the Gulf of Maine in exchange for funneling cash into U.S. oil and gas development, according to a joint announcement Wednesday.

  • June 17, 2026

    $7.25B Roundup Deal Sent Back To Missouri State Court

    A Missouri federal judge on Wednesday sent the case that resulted in a yet-to-be-finalized $7.25 billion settlement with Monsanto over claims that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer from California federal court back to Missouri state court.

  • June 17, 2026

    Syngenta, Chevron Bids To Move Paraquat Cases Opposed

    Plaintiffs alleging they developed Parkinson's disease from an herbicide asked a Philadelphia judge to block bids by Syngenta and Chevron to move the cases out of the city's mass tort system, arguing that the companies already tried that and failed.

  • June 17, 2026

    Lender Says Co. Defaulted On $5M Loan, Tanked Pot Site Value

    A cannabis real estate company and an affiliate gutted a $27 million cultivation facility, stopped paying taxes on it and defaulted on a $4.6 million clean-energy loan, according to a federal lawsuit by the lender, which seeks a court-ordered sale of the property.

  • June 17, 2026

    Pa. Land Trust's Exemption Must Be Revisited, Court Rules

    A Pennsylvania trial court must reconsider the charitable use of land owned by a trust under an analysis provided by the appellate Commonwealth Court and reevaluate whether the land is eligible for a charitable tax exemption, the appellate court ruled Wednesday.

  • June 17, 2026

    Aquarion Cleared To Borrow $214M, Some For PFAS Work

    Aquarion Water Co. of Connecticut can take on nearly $214 million in new debt, including $200 million through unsecured bonds and nearly $14 million in safe drinking water loans, some of which are earmarked for PFAS "forever chemical" treatment and mitigation systems, Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority decided Wednesday.

  • June 17, 2026

    Recycler Says City's Wrongful License Suspension Cost $10M  

    The operator of a metal recycling scrapyard in Camden, New Jersey, currently facing two lawsuits over its handling of the facility has filed its own lawsuit in state court, alleging the city acted beyond its statutory authority in suspending the operator's license.

  • June 16, 2026

    Chevron's Climate Suit Comparison Meets Skeptical Judge

    A Washington state judge pushed back Tuesday after Chevron and other oil giants urged dismissal of a family's lawsuit over a 2021 heatwave death, saying this case differs from a host of failed climate torts because it focuses on a single fatality from a "very specific weather event."

  • June 16, 2026

    DOJ Wants NAACP's Air Permit Suit Against XAI Tossed

    The Trump administration has urged a Mississippi federal court to let it step in as a plaintiff and dismiss the NAACP's lawsuit that seeks to bar X.AI Corp.'s operation of a data center-powering gas plant in Southaven, saying the NAACP can't pursue the lawsuit over the government's objection.

  • June 16, 2026

    'Cold Comfort': Judge Pans Fed Defense Of Energy Grant Cuts

    The Trump administration faced tough questions from a California federal judge during a hearing Tuesday on the government's request to transfer or toss states' allegations it unlawfully terminated energy and infrastructure programs, with the judge calling defense counsel's arguments "cold comfort" to grant recipients who've lost billions in funding.

  • June 16, 2026

    Montanans Say Data Center Electricity Rates Need Their Input

    Environmental advocacy groups seek to intervene in NorthWestern Energy's application to establish new rates for future data centers, telling the Montana Public Service Commission that their input is needed to protect residential customers from unpredictably higher costs.

  • June 16, 2026

    WestRock Must Face Class Claims Over Wash. Paper Mill Odor

    A group of Washington and Oregon residents can proceed with a proposed class action accusing paper mill operator WestRock Longview LLC of negligently releasing noxious gases that sickened neighbors and hurt property values, a Washington federal judge ruled Monday.

  • June 16, 2026

    Tribe Says Klamath Water Plan Shorted Salmon For Irrigation

    The Yurok Tribe has asked a California federal judge to overturn an annual operations plan the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released for the Klamath Project irrigation system, arguing it unlawfully promised too much water for agriculture at the expense of salmon.

  • June 16, 2026

    Coalition Sues To Stop Trump's West Potomac Park Plan

    A coalition of conservation and historic preservation organizations and a Washington, D.C., resident are suing the Trump administration to stop a proposed revamp of West Potomac Park.

  • June 16, 2026

    US Magnesium Creditors Get OK On Ch. 11 Liquidation Plan

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Tuesday signed off on a Chapter 11 liquidation plan proposed by US Magnesium's unsecured creditors, overruling objections to the deal by the debtor's owner and Wells Fargo.

  • June 16, 2026

    Orange County Residents Sue GKN Over Toxic Emergency

    A proposed class of Orange County residents is suing GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems Inc. in California state court, alleging GKN's negligence led to the overheating and near-explosion of a 34,000 gallon tank of methyl methacrylate in May.

  • June 16, 2026

    Judge Says Trump Admin Must Explain Park Sign Burden

    The Trump administration must explain how it will be harmed by an order requiring it to restore climate change, slavery and Indigenous history information to National Park Service sites by Independence Day after it asked a federal court to pause the decision pending a First Circuit appeal.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 'Mobile' Sources For On-Site Generation May Be A Risky Bet

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering treating large on-site generators used at data centers as mobile rather than stationary sources under the Clean Air Act, a significant policy change that would leave developers that adopt this solution at risk of regulatory reversals, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • EPA Listing Signals New Scrutiny Of Drugs In Drinking Water

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    The recent publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest draft drinking water contaminant list highlights pharmaceuticals as a category of concern, marking the start of a process that could shape future research priorities, monitoring requirements, and federal and state actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Md. Justices' State Climate Tort Ban May Shape National Path

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    The Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal law preempted state-level deceptive marketing tort claims brought by several municipalities could offer the U.S. Supreme Court a road map to use in the pending Suncor Energy v. Boulder County case to exclude states from the business of regulating global emissions, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Growing Importance Of Nature-Related Disclosures

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    The International Sustainability Standards Board's recent vote to develop nonmandatory nature‑related disclosure guidance reduces immediate compliance pressure, but it does not eliminate the practical relevance of such risks for companies that already prepare sustainability reports or operate across jurisdictions with differing expectations, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Rightsizing Regulation To Usher In Next-Generation Nuclear

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    Next-generation nuclear seems to be having its moment as a recent flurry of Nuclear Regulatory Commission rulemaking aims to fast-track the licensing and deployment of such technologies, says Hilary Jacobs at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

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