The courts decided 44 cases under New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in 2019. In only six did the courts overturn governmental decisions based on violations of SEQRA. Those six hold important lessons for litigants and project participants.

Eleven of the cases in this annual survey involved the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS); only one of those was overturned. There were 29 cases with no EIS; either a formal “negative declaration” had been issued, or the action was deemed Type II—that is, not requiring SEQRA review at all. Five of these case found agency action were contrary to law, or at least required further adjudication. The remaining cases cannot be classified in this manner. All the cases will be included in the 2020 update to our treatise on SEQRA.