JUDICIAL:

St. Bernard Par. Gov’t v. United States, 916 F.3d 987 (Fed. Cir. 2019); St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana (“St. Bernard”) has appealed from an order of the Court of Federal Claims dismissing its breach of contract claim for lack of jurisdiction.  On appeal to this court, St. Bernard argues that the trial court erroneously concluded that the agreement between St. Bernard and the NRCS was not a binding contract enforceable in money damages against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims. .  The Court held that Congress displaced Tucker Act jurisdiction over claims against the NRCS such as St. Bernard’s and imposed in its place a regime requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies, followed by judicial review in a district court. We therefore hold that the Court of Federal Claims lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over this case
NATIVE ECOSYSTEM COUNCIL & ALLIANCE FOR THE WILD ROCKIES, Plaintiffs, v. DONATO JUDICE, Acting Assoc. State Dir., the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, an agency of the United States, Defendants., No. CV 18-55-BLG-SPW, 2019 WL 1131231 (D. Mont. Mar. 12, 2019)
Plaintiffs Native Ecosystem Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies have filed a motion for summary judgment (Doc. 46) on all their claims against defendants (collectively the “Bureau of Land Management” or “BLM”). BLM responded by filing a cross motion for summary judgment.
The Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion and denies BLM’s motion in that BLM violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at cumulative impacts.
The Court grants BLM’s motion and denies Plaintiffs’ motion in all other respects.
It was further ordered that this matter was remanded to BLM so that it may prepare a supplemental environmental assessment consistent with this order and the law.
It was further ordered that the defendants are enjoined from implementing the challenged actions while the proceedings required on remand are pending.
Based on this Court’s ruling on the summary judgment motions, Plaintiffs’ second motion for preliminary injunction was deniedas moot.
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