Judges Appear To Back Parallel CWA Rule Suits Despite Legal Confusion

摘要

Federal district and circuit court judges appear likely to allow the myriad parallel legal challenges to EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule to proceed in separate courts, despite what EPA and its allies say will be significant legal confusion when the various courts issue potentially competing decisions on the rule. At Oct. 1 arguments here, judges on a federal multi-district litigation (MDL) panel signaled they were likely to rule in the future to reject consolidation of the more than a dozen individual district court suits over the rule, which have been filed by industry groups, environmentalists, and many states. One judge suggested competing rulings could be appealed to appellate courts, and any split among those courts could then be resolved by the Supreme Court.