Articles

Author: Harold Johnson In this comprehensive article, PLF attorney, M. Reed Hopper, critiques the Clean Water Restoration Act pending in Congress.  He exposes the misconceptions on  which the Act is based and argues the Act far exceeds congressional power.  Contrary to common belief and longstanding constitutional principles ...

Author: Reed Hopper In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the federal government did not have authority to regulate "isolated" water bodies, like ponds, puddles and mudflats that have no connection to navigable waters.  To find otherwise, the court noted, would violate the intent of Congress, the clear language of the Clean Water ...

Author: Reed Hopper You recall the old line from Otto von Bismarck that to retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.  That's certainly true for the Clean Water Act.  There is general agreement that Clean Water Act jurisprudence is a mess; no one knows how far federal jurisdiction extend ...

Some years ago, when I was an attorney here at Pacific Legal Foundation in our Environmental Law section, I worked on a Supreme Court wetlands case called Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC). In many ways, the Supreme Court’s decision in that case, and in two other cases, … ...