Public Health Groups Ask The Supreme Court To Hear Tobacco Appeal

On behalf of six major public health organizations – Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network – we have filed a Petition for Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court in the long-running litigation brought by the Department of Justice over the cigarette companies’ violations of civil RICO.  In 2005, our clients were granted intervention to advocate for the most effective remedies to redress the companies’ misconduct.  Although in 2006 the trial court ruled that the companies engaged in a decades-long fraud concerning the health effects of smoking and the nature of nicotine, in May 2009 the D.C. Circuit concluded that the trial court has no authority under RICO to remedy this misconduct by requiring the companies to give up their unlawful profits, or fund programs to help addicted smokers quit smoking.  We, and the government, have asked the Supreme Court to accept the case to reverse this decision, and rule that the trial court has broad authority to impose appropriate remedies to address the effects of the tobacco companies’ fraud.  A copy of the Petition is here. 

Sierra Club et al Moves for Summary Judgment in Cypress Creek Town Center case

Plaintiffs Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network and Clean Water Action have completed summary judgment briefing challenging the construction of the Cypress Creek Town Center in Pasco County, Florida, asserting that the town center will degrade Cypress Creek, designated an Outstanding Florida Water, destroy occupied habitat for the federally listed Wood Stork and Eastern Indigo Snake, and sever a critical wildlife linkage traversing the site.

Plaintiffs SJ Motion

Government SJ Motion

Int. Def. SJ Motion

Plaintiffs SJ Opposition and Reply

Government SJ Reply

Int. Def. SJ Reply

Opening Brief Filed In First Circuit Canada Lynx Appeal

Today, the Animal Welfare Institute and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine filed their opening brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.  The appeal challenges a lower court decision that found a substantive violation of the Endangered Species Act’s strict prohibition on “taking” members of listed species, but failed to craft any declaratory or injunctive relief to remedy the violation.  The lower court’s unprecedented result has sanctioned unlawful conduct by the defendant in the case, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, effectively giving the defendant a green light to run roughshod over the Act’s mandates.

Plaintiffs Appeal Ringling Brothers Decision

On January 25, 2010, the plaintiffs filed an appeal of the district court’s standing decision in their case against the Ringling Bros. circus.  ASPCA et al. v. Feld Entertainment, Inc., No. 10-7007 (D.C. Cir. 2010).

Conservation Groups Win Battle Over Everglades Mining Permits

Capping our eight-year legal battle on behalf of the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council over  Corps of Engineers permits authorizing the destruction of thousands of acres of ecologically valuable wetlands immediately adjacent to Everglades National Park, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed a ruling by federal district Judge William Hoeveler that the permits were issued in violation of the Clean Water Act and that the destructive mining – which is also occurring in close proximity to the principal drinking water supply for Miami-Dade county – should not proceed at least until the Corps applies a far more environmentally protective standard.  Download the Court of Appeals’ opinion here.      

Environmentalists Make a Stand for the Northern Spotted Owl

On behalf of Conservation Congress, we sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue two federal agencies for their repeated violations of the Endangered Species Act. Our detailed letter, sent last week, outlines how the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service have repeatedly allowed the take of Northern Spotted Owls and destruction of their critical habitat in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest without considering the overall impact on the Owl’s ability to survive and recover. Download Conservation Congress’s press release here.

Judge Issues Decision in Ringling Brothers Case

On December 30, 2009, Judge Sullivan issued a decision granting judgment for the defendant in the Ringling Bros. case, ASPCA et al. v. Feld Entertainment, Civ. No. 03-2006 (D.D.C.) on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack Article III standing. Because the Judge found that he lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, he did not address the merits of our claims.