Montana Wilderness Association v. United States Forest Service
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Docket No. 80-3374 (1981)
- Written by Josh Lee, JD
Facts
Burlington Northern, Inc. (Burlington Northern) (defendant), owned land containing timber in Montana. This land was surrounded by national-forest land and had originally been acquired by the Northern Pacific Railroad pursuant to a federal grant of odd-numbered square sections of land in exchange for the construction of railroad tracks. The federal government retained the even-numbered parcels of land, which formed a checkerboard pattern in the area. Burlington Northern planned to construct an access road through the national-forest land and received a permit from the United States Forest Service (defendant) to do so. A neighboring property owner and a group of environmentalists (plaintiffs) sued Burlington Northern and the United States Forest Service to prevent construction of the road. The trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants. The plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Norris, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 802,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.