On January 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court granted an appeal to reconsider the extent of federal Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction involving wetlands on a couple’s property in Idaho. The appellants (the Sacketts) are no strangers to the Supreme Court: in 2012, they won a landmark procedural case when the Court held that they could appeal an EPA unilateral administrative order before EPA actually tried to enforce it (“Sacket I”). The underlying enforcement case by EPA has been percolating since then, culminating in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s holding that the wetlands on their property are federally regulated. The Sackett’s appeal of this decision to the Supreme Court will turn on “whether the Ninth Circuit set forth the proper test for determining whether wetlands are ‘waters of the United States’ under the [CWA], 33 U.S.C. § 1362(7)” (“Sacket II”).
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