High court to decide where WOTUS case should be heard

The Supreme Court will decide whether the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals was right to assert jurisdiction over legal challenges to the “waters of the U.S.” rule.

The court decided today to grant a petition seeking review of the 6th Circuit's fractured decision, in which that court narrowly determined that it should adjudicate the numerous WOTUS challenges.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) filed the petition in September challenging that decision, noting that even Circuit Judge David McKeague, who agreed with the federal government, expressed serious doubts about the government's reasoning.

The Clean Water Act gives federal appeals courts “original jurisdiction” to review certain categories of EPA decisions to implement the law. The federal government argued before the appeals court and in response to the NAM petition that WOTUS would fall into one of those categories - “actions “approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation.”

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