Administrative Law & Standing
To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must prove or show these three things.
What are injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability?
The Army Corps of Engineers plans to approve a major dredging project in a federal harbor that may significantly affect wetlands and fisheries. Before acting, the agency must prepare this document if the impacts are significant.
What is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)?
States establish these for waters within their borders, including designated uses and criteria.
What are water quality standards?
The EPA sets nationwide ambient concentration limits for pollutants like ozone and particular matter. These limits are called these standards.
What are National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)?
Residents exposed to groundwater contamination from industrial chemicals sue a manufacturer, but must rely on expert testimony to link exposure levels to their illnesses. This element is their central evidentiary hurdle.
What is causation?
After this 2024 Supreme Court case, courts no longer defer to agencies simply because a statute is ambiguous; instead, courts must exercise their independent judgment on questions of law.
What is Loper Bright?
A federal agency fully analyzes the environmental harms of a pipeline, acknowledges severe impacts, and still approves it. A challenger argues NEPA was violated simply because the agency chose the harmful option. The challenge is weak because NEPA is this kind of statute.
What is procedural?
Before an environmental group may sue a factory for repeated permit exceedances, it must first complete this procedural step.
What is give 60 days' notice?
Los Angeles continues to exceed EPA's ozone standard. Under the Clean Air Act, the area is classified as this type of region, triggering stricter controls.
What is a nonattainment area?
A fertilizer plant's odor and emissions interfere with nearby residents' enjoyment of their homes. They sue under this common-law tort theory.
What is private nuisance?
This APA provision creates the default presumption that final agency action is reviewable unless a statute precludes review or commits the matter to agency discretion.
What is section 702?
A private developer drains breeding habitat for an endangered frog, causing death and reproductive failure. Even without directly killing the frogs, this likely violates ESA § 9's prohibition on this conduct.
What is a take?
A paper mill wishes to discharge treated wastewater through a pipe directly into a river. Before doing so, it must obtain this type of permit.
What is an NPDES/§ 402 permit?
States petition the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The EPA says carbon dioxide is not an "air pollutant." The Supreme Court rejected this argument in this landmark case.
What is Massachusetts v. EPA?
Airborne pollutants from an industrial facility drift onto neighboring land and leave measurable residue. Plaintiffs argue this is trespass because it involves this type of interference.
What is physical invasion of property?
After Loper Bright, the EPA offers a detailed, consistent interpretation of "waters" backed by decades of expertise. The court is not bound by EPA's reading but may still give it weight based on persuasiveness under this doctrine.
What is Skidmore deference?
A federal timber sale is challenged because it may appreciably reduce the survival and recovery chances of a listed owl species. Plaintiffs argue that the agency violated ESA § 7's prohibition on this.
What is jeopardizing the continued existence of the species?
A developer places rock and soil into wetlands to build a shopping center parking lot. The project most likely requires this permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
What is a dredge-and-fill/§ 404 permit?
A company wants to build a new power plant in an area that already meets the NAAQS. Before construction, it must obtain this pre-construction permit designed to preserve clean air.
What is a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit?
In this case, the Florida Supreme Court held "that the [Florida] [L]egislature did not intend that the special injury rule carry over to suits brought under the . . ." Florida Environmental Protection Act.
What is Florida Wildlife Federation?
These are three factors that a court may consider in deciding whether an agency's interpretation deserves persuasive weight (name any three).
What are: agency expertise; carefulness of the interpretation; consistency over time in the interpretation; context (formal rule vs. guidance); and/or thoroughness of the agency's reasoning?
The Department of Transportation prepares an EIS for a highway expansion but studies only the preferred route and ignores a rail alternative heavily discussed in public comments. Plaintiffs argue that the EIS omitted NEPA's required consideration of this.
What is reasonable alternative analysis?
A landowner fills a wetland separated from a nearby creek by a berm and dry upland strip. After Sackett v. EPA, the strongest defense is that the wetlands lack this required connection to covered waters.
What is a continuous surface connection?
Facilities that emit hazardous air pollutants like benzene must meet this Clean Air Act standard based on the best-performing sources in their industry.
What is Maximum Achievable Control Technology?
Under Florida's Environmental Protection Act, citizens may sue polluters for injunctive relief, but their ability to proceed is limited if the defendant is operating under this type of regulatory authorization.
What is a valid permit or certificate?