Corps Water Act Jurisdiction Finding May Be Reviewable Final Agency Action, Justices Say

摘要

U.S. Supreme Court justices suggested during oral arguments March 30 that a Clean Water Act juris-dictional determination is a judicially reviewable final agency action because legal consequences flow from it (Hawkes Co. v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, U.S., No. 15-290, oral arguments 3/20/16). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had presented the question to the court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that such a determination issued to a Minnesota peat farmer is final agency action, creating a split from the Fifth and Ninth Circuits which ruled that it is not a reviewable action (Hawkes Co. v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, 782 F.3d 994, 80 ERC 1265, 2015 BL 101976 (6th Cir. 2015)).