The Supreme Court of the United States ruled Jan. 22 that the proper jurisdiction for challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States or Clean Water Rule is in federal district court, not the circuit court level.

 

Environmentalists consider the ruling an initial blow to the Trump administration, but the Obama era rule won’t go into effect because EPA intends to release a rewritten rule within a month, E&E News reported. Justices rebuffed arguments by the administration that a federal appeals court should instead hear the litigation.

 

In her unanimous decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court: “The government’s policy arguments provide no basis to depart from the statute’s plain language. First, the government contends that initial circuit-court review of the WOTUS Rule would avoid a bifurcated judicial-review scheme under which courts of appeals would review individual actions issuing or denying permits, whereas district courts would review broader regulations governing those actions. But, as explained, Congress has made clear that rules like the WOTUS rule must be reviewed first in federal district courts.”

 

Click Here to read more.