PLF asks Supreme Court to review important wetlands case

October 27, 2015 | By MARK MILLER
Govt negotiating with property owner

Typical example of federal bureaucrat negotiating with private property owner

Earlier today, Pacific Legal Foundation filed its response to the petition for writ of certiorari filed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to the Supreme Court in our Hawkes v. Army Corps of Engineers case. In this case, the Eighth Circuit agreed with PLF that Clean Water Act jurisdictional determinations (JDs) are reviewable in court. The Corps does not want its JDs reviewed by an independent and neutral decision maker, so it filed the certiorari petition. In other words, the feds hope to deny land owners their day in court. For its part, PLF believes that the courthouse doors should be open to land owners who face a federal government that too often overreaches its constitutional authority.

PLF already filed a certiorari petition pending before the Supreme Court on this same issue, in a case known as Kent Recycling. You can read more about Kent Recycling at this link.

Thus, the guys in white hats (us) and the guys in black hats (the feds) have both asked the Supreme Court for review. Should the Court accept either case (or both), we expect that the Court would schedule the oral argument for the new year.