Mon Sep 21st, On Environmental Law, Firm News, by Kimberly Bick
As a woman lawyer, the honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg holds an important position of influence to me. I was a judicial clerk on the D.C. Circuit from 1990 to 1991, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a judge on that still-auspicious court. I worked for RBG’s colleague and fellow female liberal judge, Patricia M. Wald, who was the Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit that year. Judge Wald was […]
Fri Jun 26th, On Environmental Law, Litigation, by Kimberly Bick
In perhaps the most consequential environment and energy case heard by the Supreme Court this term, the justices overruled a decision by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Forest Service did not have the power to authorize the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s natural gas project to pass beneath the trail. In a 7-2 decision in United States Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, No. 18-1584 (June 15, […]
Tue May 12th, On Rulemaking and Legislative Practice, by Kimberly Bick
On April 23, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund that a property owner is required to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) Permit under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) prior to a direct discharge, or the “functional equivalent” of a direct discharge, of a pollutant to navigable waters. In an almost eerie sense of timing, two days earlier, on April 21, […]
Mon May 4th, On Litigation, by Kimberly Bick
Seventeen states and cities (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia and New York City) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last week seeking judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) of a rule promulgated by the U.S. Environmental […]
