A legal analyst tells RFD-TV, he believes the Supreme Court will finally put to rest the issue of Waters of the U.S.
The court will hear the latest case brought by an Idaho couple who has been battling the EPA for nearly two decades. That issue is the definition of “wetland,” which was essentially a ditch on their property, but because it backs up to a lake, which is a navigable water, the EPA threatened massive fines.
The couple won their case at the high court, but last summer a lower court said EPA’s process for determining a wetland was correct.
Roger McEowen with the Washburn School of Law explains what is at stake in the new case.
“We have the Biden administration that has put out a proposed rule, and now you have the Supreme Court saying ‘we’re going to tell you what the rule is.’ So, this has the potential to wipe out whatever the Biden administration is coming up with,” he explains. “Their proposed rule would really be expansive and take us back to the 1986 test, which has been heavily litigated. I think the court is seeing this and saying alright we’re going to grab this one by the horns and probably if I’m reading the tea leaves right, they’re going to use the plurality opinion and the Rapinos opinion of 2006, which, bottom line, that’d be pretty good for agriculture if they do that.”
Justices will only seek to determine if the lower court used the proper test to decide if wetlands are waters of the U.S.
McEowen believes that we could have a decision by June.
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