For the third time, expansions of the poorly named Waters of the United States regulations have been struck down, this time in SACKETT ET UX. v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ET AL., the Environmental Protection Agency cited the Clean Water Act and said a family could not build a home on land they owned - because the house was near a ditch and that ditch led to a creek and that creek led to Prairie Lake. Which is a 'navigable' water.
During the Obama administration when this new federal land grab was first tried, the concern was that every ditch on private property could lead to armed federal agents kicking in doors and lawyers for environmental groups and the Obama administration said that would never happen.
Except armed federal agents and court orders now happen all of the time. EPA claimed a few weeks ago it was bound by law to enforce WOTUS even though it has been suspended due to court challenges, a statement which made even the most dour constitutional scholars laugh.
Using the most aggressive abuse of regulatory power seen since 2015, EPA threatened the Sacketts with fines of $40,000 per day. As expected because it is so common, the far left Ninth Circuit upheld the right of government to do anything it wants, but the owners persisted, and it reached the Supreme Court - who demonstrated why the Ninth is the most overtly unscientific, and therefore most overturned, court in the country.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against EPA, stating plainly yet again that The Biden administration's interpretation is inconsistent with the Clean Water Act’s text and clashes with “background principles of construction.”
Which is exactly what legal critics, the science community, and the agriculture community said all along.
In Unanimous Fashion, SCOTUS Sides With Science Over The Biden Administration's WOTUS Effort Again
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