Kenneth Jost
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Supreme Court Redefines 'Taking'
By Josh Stephens on 24 June 2010 - 2:47pmJudged 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.
Energy Companies Win Supreme Court's Clean Water Act Ruling
By Paul Shigley on 1 April 2009 - 6:40pmWASHINGTON – 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.
U.S. Supreme Court Reviews Coastal Power Plant Operations
By Paul Shigley on 8 December 2008 - 11:05amWASHINGTON – 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.
High Court Limits Endangered Species Protections
By Paul Shigley on 28 June 2007 - 10:00amWASHINGTON _ 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.
Builders, Administration Differ With Environmentalists On Species Review
By William Fulton on 4 May 2007 - 11:32amWASHINGTON _ 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.
Supreme Court Decision Brings Wetlands Uncertainty
1 July 2006 - 12:00amWASHINGTON _ The Supreme Court's splintered decision on wetlands protection is likely to result in more litigation for federal agencies and new attention to California water boards’ expansive jurisdiction over the state’s waters.
Supreme Court Upholds Use Of Eminent Domain For Development
1 July 2005 - 12:00amThe Supreme Court's closely divided decision backing the use of eminent domain for economic development gives state and local governments a qualified boost in what property rights advocates promise to be continuing challenges to the practice in state courts.
Supreme Court Sides With Municipality In Antenna Case
1 April 2005 - 1:00amWASHINGTON _ The Supreme Court has spared municipalities from the threat of paying attorneys fees awards for improperly blocking construction of cellphone towers.
Eminent Domain Opponents Have It Rough At High Court
1 March 2005 - 1:00amWASHINGTON _ The U.S. Supreme Court appeared unreceptive in late February to arguments by property-rights advocates to rein in the use of eminent domain by municipalities that take land and turn it over to private companies for economic development.
Supreme Court: Federal Air Regulations Trump State Rules
1 February 2004 - 1:00amThe federal Clean Air Act requires new factories and power plants to use the "best available control technology" to limit air pollution, but generally lets states determine what specific systems satisfy the law.
But in a closely divided decision issued in late January, the usually states rights-minded high court sided with the feds and upheld EPA’s authority to override state environmental regulators.