U.S. SUPREME COURT HOLDS THAT ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLIANCE ORDERS ARE SUBJECT TO APA REVIEW

摘要

On March 21, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, 132 S. Ct. 1367 (2012), holding that administrative compliance orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251-1387, constitute final agency action and are subject to pre-enforcement judicial review under chapter 7 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. §§701-706. Before this decision, recipients of a CWA compliance order who disagreed with the order had to choose between: (1) complying without an opportunity to argue the case to a judge, and (2) accruing significant fines for each day of noncompliance if they elected not to comply and ultimately lost. As discussed below, the Court ultimately ruled on narrow grounds, but the decision certainly will impact EPA's use of administrative compliance orders under the CWA and, potentially, other environmental statutes.