New Suits Mark First Tests Of EPA Water Enforcement Following Sackett

摘要

Two just-filed federal lawsuits challenging EPA Clean Water Act enforcement decisions appear to mark the first efforts by plaintiffs to contest such actions since the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in Sackett v. EPA that agency enforcement orders are "final" and can be challenged before they are enforced. The suits, filed in federal district courts in West Virginia and New York, could provide early tests of how lower courts will implement the high court's ruling, including addressing what are expected to be the high legal burdens that plaintiffs must meet in order to block EPA actions and whether the high court's holding applies retroactively.