A UNANIMOUS DECISION by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22 vindicated 11 PLF clients like John Duarte and Kevin Pierce who simply wanted to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court. PLF’s victory ensures that future challengers to the Clean Water Act and regulatory malfeasance will have plenty of time to take the EPA to court.
At issue is the EPA’s controversial 2015 “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule under the Clean Water Act, which redefines vast areas of privately owned dry land as water subject to federal control. PLF represented clients from six states who filed in federal district court in Minnesota. The EPA, however, persuaded the judge that our clients could not sue in that court, so the judge dismissed the case.
The EPA claimed that the only way to dispute its unprecedented land grab was by filing a special petition in the federal appeals court, under an obscure and technical Clean Water Act provision that allows only 120 days to challenge the EPA permits for sewage plants. While the WOTUS rule is not a wastewater permit of any kind, the EPA argued the rule is “related” to permits, and must follow the special procedure.
“The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision limits the government to the actual text of the Clean Water Act, repudiating bureaucratic overreach based on vague purpose statements.”
—Justice Sonia Sotomayor
WRITING FOR A UNANIMOUS COURT IN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MANUFACTURERS V. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
This fine print provision would lock millions of ordinary Americans out of the courthouse and essentially insulate the EPA’s blatant overreach from judicial scrutiny.
We disagreed, and argued in the federal appeals court, followed by the U.S. Supreme Court, that our case could rightly proceed in district court, allowing five years—not four months—to challenge an overly burdensome and unconstitutional regulation. As with our other Clean Water Act victories in Sackett and Hawkes, the Supreme Court agreed that all federal trial courthouse doors are open to citizens who wish to challenge the EPA and Army Corps overreach under the Clean Water Act.
The Supreme Court’s decision is National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense. NAM was one of roughly 100 parties alongside PLF’s clients who sued to invalidate the WOTUS rule in federal district court.
PLF will now get on with the real courtroom work: overturning the illegal 2015 WOTUS rule itself—and we’re hopeful that our next report will be on yet another victory.
