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It would be hard to miss the fact that last week, the EPA and Corps of Engineers announced a vast and illegal expansion of their asserted authority over private property under the Clean Water Act. In light of news that part of the “public” campaign in support of the rule was faked by EPA, many are wary of … ...

If forced to describe Pacific Legal Foundation as only one particular organization’s bête noire, I would find it tough to pick just one. The California Coastal Commission? The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service? Your average state regulatory agency? The pickings are vast, and Constitution-violating government entities numerous. But if forced ...

This week, the leading public-policy think tank in Tallahassee, the James Madison Institute, published a new WOTUS piece by M. Reed Hopper and yours truly. You can read the piece, a JMI Backgrounder entitled, “Waters of the United States: A Case Study in Government Abuse,” at this link. Although the article applies to all land across ...

Liberty Blog readers know that the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule issued earlier this summer is not only a brazen power grab by the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers that will create additional costs, risks, and confusion for ordinary property owners, but that it is also blatantly illegal. Last week, as … ...

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate used a rare procedural device to pass Senate Joint Resolution 22, which would effectively negate the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation issued jointly this summer by U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. The Senate “resolution of disapproval” was sponsored and passionately advanced by ...

Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House and Congressman from Wisconsin, wrote a timely piece for today’s Omaha World Herald criticizing the EPA’s new waters of the United States (WOTUS) definition. Ryan aptly sets out that the new rule is about power, and nothing less: The Obama administration’s sweeping new rule, dubbed Waters of the ...

Last November, we explained how the U.S. Senate was using a special procedure under the Congressional Review Act to enact a congressional “resolution of disapproval” that would overturn the illegal Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation jointly issued by U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. That same post also reminded Libe ...

Earlier today, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that it—and not the federal district courts—has original jurisdiction to hear challenges to the EPA and the Corps’ “waters of the United States” rule.  (PLF attorneys represent a coalition of property rights and trade association ...

This week PLF asked the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear whether jurisdiction over challenges to the WOTUS rule is proper in the federal appeals courts or the federal trial courts. A month ago a three judge panel of the same court ruled that the appeals courts have jurisdiction instead of the trial courts. … ...

Last week I had the opportunity to speak on a panel during the annual spring meeting of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources.  The focus of my presentation was on the EPA and the Corps’ Clean Water Act rule interpreting the meaning of the “waters of the United States.”  I noted R ...