Justia Government & Administrative Law Opinion Summaries

Intervenor, Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, appealed the grant of summary judgment to the Sierra Club based on violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., by the USDA's Rural Utilities Services. The district court ruled that the Service unlawfully failed to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) before granting approvals and financial assistance to Sunflower's expansion of its coal-fired power plant, and remanded the matter to the Service, enjoining it from granting further approvals until it completed an EIS. The court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1291 because Sunflower appealed a non-final remand order that was not immediately appealable by a private party and under section 1292(a)(1) because the injunction served no purpose beyond the remand. View "Sierra Club v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, et al" on Justia Law

Appellants - AFGE, several AFGE locals that represent Air Reserve Technicians (ARTs), and ART Mark Winstead - challenged three Air Force instructions requiring ARTs to wear military uniforms while performing civilian duties. The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because appellants failed to exhaust their administrative remedies under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA), 5 U.S.C. 1101 et seq. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal because the exclusive remedial scheme of the CSRA precluded AFGE's claims. View "American Federation of Government Employees, et al v. Secretary of the Air Force" on Justia Law

Judicial Watch appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the CIA. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, request seeking disclosure by the CIA of 52 post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden. The agency refused on the ground that the images were classified as Top Secret. Because the images were properly classified and were exempt from disclosure from FOIA, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dept. of Defense, et al" on Justia Law

Appellant, confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital since 1982, asserted a cause of action under, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. 1983, and alleged that DMH had violated his rights by seizing money from his patient account without affording him procedural due process. DMH responded that the hospital had lawfully transferred appellant's money to cover the cost of his care. It was clear from the record that appellant received proper notice before his funds were taken. The court also found that appellant's claim that he was denied due process lacked merit because he failed to invoke the remedies available to him under the D.C. Administrative Procedure Act, D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 22-A, 308.9. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "English v. District of Columbia, et al" on Justia Law

This case arose from actions taken by the Commission approving an application by Southern for combined licenses to construct and operate new Units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle Nuclear Plant and an application by Westinghouse for an amendment to its already-approved reactor design on which the Vogtle application relied. After the close of the combined-license hearing record, petitioners sought to reopen the hearing to litigate contentions relating to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex in Japan. The court held that the Commission acted reasonably in denying petitioners' contentions where the Task Force Report, studying the implications of the Fukushima accident for the United States, alone was not a "new and significant" circumstance requiring a supplemental environmental impact statement and petitioners' contentions lacked specific links between the Fukushima Accident and the Vogtle Site. Accordingly, the court denied the petitions for review. View "Blue Ridge Env. Defense League, et al v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, et al" on Justia Law

In 2007, FERC granted various rate incentives to encourage the construction of three projects by SoCal Edison. The beneficial rate treatment included incentives to be added to a base rate of return for the projects. Later that year, SoCal Edison filed revisions to its transmission tariff, pursuant to section 205 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), 16 U.S.C. 824d, to reflect changes to its transmission revenue requirements and rates, implementing the rate incentives and proposing a base return on equity (ROE). The Commission concluded that SoCal Edison's base ROE should be set at the median, rather than the midpoint as SoCal Edison proposed, of the range established by a proxy group of publicly-traded companies, and that the ROE for the locked-in period should be updated to reflect the most recently available financial data. SoCal Edison petitioned for review, challenging the Commission's conclusions. The court denied the petition as to the Commission's methodology for measuring the ROE, and the court granted the petition and remanded in view of the Commission's failure to comply with 5 U.S.C. 556(e) when it updated the ROE with information outside the record. View "So. California Edison Co. v. FERC" on Justia Law

The Board declared a rule that employers subject to its jurisdiction would be guilty of an unfair labor practice if they did not post on their properties and on their websites a "Notification of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act." Trade associations and other organizations representing employers filed complaints in the district court, claiming that the Board's rule violated the National Labor Relations Act 29 U.S.C. 151 et seq., and the First Amendment to the Constitution. As a preliminary matter, the court held that the time of filing with the Office of the Federal Register was the appropriate time for determining whether the Board had a valid quorum. That the Board may have lost a quorum before its rule was published did not render its rule invalid. On the merits, the court concluded that the Board's rule violated section 8(c) because it made an employer's failure to post the Board's notice an unfair labor practice, and because it treated such a failure as evidence of an unfair labor practice. Further, the Board's tolling rule was contrary to section 10(b). Accordingly, the court vacated the Board's posting rule. View "Nat'l Assoc. of Manufacturers, et al v. NLRB, et al" on Justia Law

Agreeing with the Board, the district court ruled that Quantum's 1996 Management Agreement with the Pueblo was null and void for lack of approval by the Secretary as required by 25 U.S.C. 81, and that it was incapable of being validated by the 2000 amendment to section 81, the application of which would be impermissibly retroactive. Applying Landgraf v. USI Film Products, the court concluded that Congress made no clear statement that it intended the 2000 amendment to apply retroactively. The court also concluded that, because the 1996 Agreement required Secretarial approval that was never obtained and the parties agreed that the Agreement would be valid without Secretarial approval under section 81 as amended, the application of the new law would give life to a null and void agreement, thereby attaching new legal consequences to it. Although the Pueblo may have voluntarily undertaken the stated duties and liabilities under the Agreement, such an agreement was null and void without Secretarial approval before 2000. Since the Secretary never approved the Agreement, any legislative validation of the duties or liabilities attached to it was impermissibly retroactive. Accordingly, the court affirmed the grant of summary judgment. View "Quantum Entertainment Ltd. v. Dept. of the Interior" on Justia Law

Three securities exchanges filed with the SEC proposed changes to their fee-setting rules for the acquisition of certain proprietary market data. Petitioners, two trade associations, requested the Commission to suspend the rules pursuant to its authority under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(C), contending that they were unlawful under NetCoalition I. When the SEC failed to do so, petitioners sought review in this court. The court held that the plain text of section 19(b)(3)(C), as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376, was clear and convincing evidence to the court of Congress's intent to preclude review of a rule change at the filing stage. Further, petitioners failed to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances for mandamus relief. The court declined to reach any other justiciability or jurisdictional question presented by the petitions. Accordingly, the court dismissed the petitions. View "NetCoalition v. SEC" on Justia Law

Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376, the SEC promulgated a rule requiring certain companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments relating to the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Petitioners challenged the statute and the regulation, raising constitutional and statutory claims. The court dismissed the petition for review for lack of jurisdiction. Because petitioners have simultaneously filed a complaint in the district court, the court need not consider transferring the petition to that court. Additionally, the court's dismissal of the petition was without prejudice to petitioners' suit in the district court. View "American Petroleum Institute, et al v. SEC" on Justia Law