In what most observers called a major victory for environmentalists and federal regulatory agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's practice of not considering costs when setting air quality standards. The American Trucking Associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce led the fight against the EPA, saying the agency should conduct cost-benefit analyses when setting standards. But a unanimous Supreme Court disagreed, with conservative Justice Antonin Scalia writing for the court. Scalia wrote that the Clean Air Act "unambiguously bars cost considerations" from the process of setting air quality standards intended to protect the public health. In a concurring opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer found the statutory language less definitive, but he reached the same conclusion. The February 27 decision, however, was not a complete defeat for business interests. The court did invalidate the EPA's ozone standards, finding that the agency's timing for implementation of the standards was unreasonable. Those standards, adopted in 1997, increased the number of metropolitan areas in violation of the Clean Air Act from 75 to about 400, including much of California. The high court sent the ozone standards back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for further review. The appellate court is expected to overturn the standards outright. The case is Whitman v. American Trucking Ass'ns Inc., No. 99-1257, 2001 Daily Journal D.A.R. 1981. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an adult business case from Los Angeles. In Alameda Books, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, No. 98-56200, the Ninth Circuit ruled that a city ordinance prohibiting an adult bookstore from also providing adult video viewing booths was unconstitutional. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, September 2000). The Ninth Circuit ruled that the city failed to prove the law prohibiting two adult businesses on the same site advanced a significant government interest because the city's study of "secondary effects" of dual adult operations was inapplicable. The Supreme Court agreed to review the case during its next term, with oral arguments likely to be conducted in October. The case is No. 00-799. An en-banc panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear a case regarding regulation of private land inside an Indian reservation. The majority of Ninth Circuit judges agreed to hear Roberta Bugenig v. Hoopa Valley Tribe, No. 99-15654 (see CP&DR Legal Digest, November 2000). Last year, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that an Indian tribe has the authority to regulate land owned by nonmembers only when given specific Congressional approval or when the land use directly affects the tribe's political integrity, economic security, or health and welfare. The Hoopa Valley Tribe does not have Congressional approval, nor did Bugenig's proposed land use directly harm the Tribe, the court ruled. Bugenig owns 40 acres inside the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in Humboldt County. She sought permission to selectively log three acres of her property, but the tribe refused to grant permission because of impacts on a ceremonial site. When Bugenig went ahead anyway, the tribe sued her in Tribal Court and won. Bugenig then filed suit in federal court, losing at the trial court level but winning on appeal. The decision to hear the case en-banc means the earlier appellate decision cannot be cited as precedent. The Ninth Circuit has withdrawn a decision in a rent control case from Southern California. In Montclair Parkowners Association v. City of Montclair, No. 99-55083, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit cleared the way for the landlords to challenge the city's rent control ordinance as an uncompensated taking. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, June 2000). A federal district court had dismissed the lawsuit because a similar one was making its way through state court. In the state litigation, The Fourth District Court of Appeal ultimately ruled that the city's ordinance was not a taking. Montclair Parkowners Association v. City of Montclair, 76 Cal.App.4th 784 (see CP&DR Legal Digest, January 2000). The Ninth Circuit panel concluded that the federal district court had ruled properly. But because the state litigation concluded in the time between the district court's decision and the appellate panel's ruling, the federal case could proceed. However, that three-judge panel's decision was withdrawn in February pending resolution of a different case, Green v. City of Tucson, No. 99-15625, in which a different Ninth Circuit panel reached a different conclusion regarding concurrent state and federal lawsuits. The Ninth Circuit is hearing Green en-banc.