The nine justices on the Supreme Court dealt another blow to the administrative state Thursday with a ruling narrowing the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority under the Clean Water Act.
In the court’s 5-4 decision, the conservative majority limited the definition of federal waterways that fall under the purview of the EPA to enforce the law as wetlands with a continuous surface water connection to larger streams, lakes, and rivers. Federal agencies and deep-pocket environmental groups have abused the vague terms of the 1972 water law for years to bring a halt to projects opposed by bureaucrats and radical conservationists.
“The uncertain meaning of ‘the waters of the United States’ has been a persistent problem, sparking decades of agency action and litigation,” the court acknowledged in Sackett v. EPA.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and John Roberts.
“For more than a half century, the agencies responsible for enforcing the Act have wrestled with the problem and adopted varying interpretations,” Alito wrote, declaring the Clean Water Act a “potent weapon.” “We hold the [Clean Water Act] extends to only those wetlands that are ‘as a practical matter indistinguishable from waters of the United States.’”
Such waters include streams with a “continuous surface connection” adjacent to federal waterways, “making it difficult to determine where the ‘water’ ends and the ‘wetland’ begins.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent over the reach
