James Robert Browning

This case concerns a prisoner's claim against a prison librarian for allegedly failing to provide assistance in properly binding a brief for a certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, which the prisoner contends prevented timely filing. A panel of the Ninth Circuit denied the librarian qualified immunity and held her liable for violating the prisoner's rights. The full court denied the petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc because it did not receive a majority of votes from nonrecused active judges, as required by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 35. The order leaves the panel decision in place without further elaboration on the merits.

criminal lawcivil rightsprocedure

The case concerned the Bureau of Land Management's Timbered Rock Fire Salvage and Elk Creek Watershed Restoration Project, which authorized logging of nearly 1,000 acres in a protected Late-Successional Reserve in southwest Oregon following a 2002 wildfire, including area salvage and designated research units. Environmental organizations sued, alleging that the project violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act by breaching the Northwest Forest Plan's limits on large-tree removal, research logging, and timber harvest in unsuitable areas, and violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to analyze cumulative impacts and relying on flawed habitat modeling. The district court ruled for the plaintiffs, invalidating the project and issuing a permanent injunction. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, concluding that the BLM's plan did not conform to the governing resource management plan as required by FLPMA.

environmentfederal power