United States Tenth Circuit

In an action under the Federal Mining Leasing Act (FMLA) claiming that the Act provides a political subdivision of a state an implied cause of action to challenge the state's allocation of federal mineral royalties received pursuant to the FMLA, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) section 191 of the FMLA "giving priority to those subdivisions of the state socially or economically impacted by development of minerals leased" is too imprecise a standard to confer a cause of action; 2) section 195 of the FMLA provides a remedial scheme for violations of the act by placing responsibility for civil enforcement on the Attorney General.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/30/2008
• Published 05/30/2008

Judges

• BALDOCK, Circuit Judge., Before HENRY, Chief Judge, and BALDOCK and TYMKOVICH Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Daniel Israel (David Thuma and Robert H. Jacobvitz of Jacobvitz, Thuma, and Walker, Albuquerque, NM, with him on the brief), Boulder, CO, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Eric R. Miller, Assistant Attorney General (Gary K. King, Attorney General, and David K. Thompson, Assistant Attorney General, with him on the brief), Santa Fe, NM, for Defendants-Appellees.