7th Circuit Limits Deference To Agencies On CWA Jurisdictional Findings

摘要

A new federal appellate ruling limits the deference that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will receive when they defend their Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdictional determinations (JDs) from lawsuits, signaling that even the forgiving deference standard in those cases will not result in an automatic win for the government.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit's June 27 decision in Orchard Hill Building Company v. Corps remands for further work a Corps JD where regulators found that wetlands on the Illinois builder's property were subject to CWA protections thanks to their hydrological links to nearby tributaries of a navigable river - but which, a unanimous 7th Circuit panel agreed, included almost no details to justify that finding. The ruling is available on InsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 213156)"While we review the Corps' determination narrowly, no amount of agency deference permits us to let slide critical findings bereft of record support," reads the decision, written by Circuit Judge Amy J. St. Eve for herself and Judges William Joseph Bauer and Amy Coney Barrett - the latter of whom is said to be on President Donald Trump's shortlist to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.