New Mexico District Court Judge Finds WOTUS Vacatur Question Moot

摘要

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico has become the latest court to remand the Trump-era rule on the definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS) to EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, agreeing with a federal judge in California that when a federal court in Arizona vacated the rule it rendered further arguments over vacatur moot. "Having reviewed the parties' pleadings and the applicable law, the Court GRANTS the parties' unopposed request to remand the matter to the Agencies, but finds the question of whether the Navigable Waters Protection Rule [NWPR] should be vacated on remand to be MOOT," Chief Judge William Johnson writes in a Sept. 21 order in Pueblo of Laguna, et al. v. Regan.