1st Circuit Eyes Overturning Bar To CWA Citizen Suits For ‘Equitable Relief’

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit is weighing whether to overturn its 30-year-old precedent barring all Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suits when a state is “diligently” taking an enforcement action after environmentalists and EPA argued the precedent is at odds with Supreme Court rulings. The 1st Circuit last month agreed to rehear en banc a ruling from a three-judge panel in The Blackstone Headwaters Coalition v. Gallo Builders, et al. , which agreed with a...