The U.S. Supreme Court Said Stop. The Army Corps Said No.

If the government admits it has no legal power over your property, can it still hold you under its thumb forever? That’s the impossible bind confronting Dr. Sedigheh Zolfaghari, whose simple plan for a horse stable has spiraled into a battle against bureaucrats who believe they outrank the Supreme Court—and the Constitution.

Dr. Zolfaghari came to the United States in the 1970s with nothing but a backpack and her medical degree. She built a thriving pediatric practice in South Florida and spent decades in neonatal intensive care treating the smallest and most fragile lives. In 2002, she retired and bought a lovely plot of land in Lake Worth, the heart of Florida’s horse country, where she’d raise horses, spend time with family, and eventually pass everything on to her son.

At the time, the Army Corps of Engineers claimed her property contained wetlands under Clean Water Act jurisdiction, but a pre-existing permit allowed her to build her family home in 2004. However, four years later, when she applied for a permit to build a guest house, the Corps forced her into a “mitigation” plan requiring her to maintain two acres of supposed wetland in their natural state. Forever.

That the government controlled 40% of her land was bad enough, but the mitigation demand was grueling. “The invasive vegetation is constantly spreading. No matter how much I clear it up, I still have to clear it again,” she says. She even spent more than $20,000 on a bridge to satisfy Corps’ permit conditions. Believing the obligation was legitimate, she complied and built the guest house.

For years, she heard nothing more. Then, in 2024, she needed another permit to put up a horse barn, and the regulators came down hard. Inspectors accused her of violating her 2008 permit by filling in the purported wetland, and threatened her with litigation and $64,000 in fines unless she restored the land to its natural state.

The stunning part? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Army Corps’ demands were illegal.

Just a year earlier, the Court ruled in PLF’s landmark Sackett v. EPA II victory that agencies cannot stretch the Clean Water Act to cover land that isn’t truly a wetland. To qualify, land must be indistinguishable from, and directly connected to, navigable waters.

Tipped off by a local official, Dr. Zolfaghari studied the ruling and realized nothing on her property comes close, and the Corps never had lawful authority over her land—not in 2008 and not now. A compliance officer even admitted this—in writing.

“I said, ‘Okay, what is this? You tell me I cannot use my own land, land that you have no jurisdiction over and you never had jurisdiction to begin with,’” she remembers thinking.

But when she asked the Corps to reinspect, she discovered what landowners nationwide are now learning: agencies are flat-out defying the nation’s highest court.

The agency rejected her request, insisting the Court’s ruling didn’t matter. Her 2008 permit gave them permanent control over nearly half of her property. Refuse, and she could face prison time or daily fines of tens of thousands of dollars.

“They said my land is still their land and I cannot use it,” she recalls. “It was like ransom for my own home, except worse.”

The Corps’ logic is outrageous and lawless. Its own staff said the property isn’t subject to CWA regulation. Yet because she had once agreed to permit demands under bogus claims of jurisdiction, the agency insists she’s bound to the conditions in perpetuity.

“The agency deceives people and forces them to get a permit even though they admit they don’t have jurisdiction. This is not only an injustice. It’s corruption,” she declares. “It was all done on lies and should be nullified. It should be thrown out.”

Moreover, if agencies can shrug off the Supreme Court, then no precedent is safe, no landowner is secure, and no American can trust that the law will be followed.

Dr. Zolfaghari’s resolve to take action only grew stronger when she learned PLF was the firm that won Sackett II. “I knew only PLF could fight this battle,” she says. “I finally had hope.”

Represented at no charge by PLF, Dr. Zolfaghari is fighting back. Hers is among the growing number of cases aimed at making sure Supreme Court precedents aren’t hollowed out by bureaucrats who refuse to give up their power.

“Federal agencies don’t get to pretend Sackett II never happened and turn their unlawful past overreach into permanent property grabs,” explains PLF attorney David McDonald. “Without accountability, Sackett II becomes little more than an academic exercise, and the Clean Water Act becomes whatever the bureaucrats say it is. With accountability, it’s a shield for liberty that the Court intended for all Americans.”

As egregious as it is that government agencies don’t automatically fall in line with Supreme Court rulings and victory at the nation’s highest court is only a first step in changing the law, Dr. Zolfaghari is determined to restore her own rights and ensure that agencies heed the Supreme Court, obey the law, and respect the Constitution.

“I knew that I didn’t have a choice,” she explains. “If the Supreme Court said what you did was wrong, you have to go back and make it right.”