DOJ's Criminal Case Stance May Undermine Narrow CWA Jurisdiction Rule

The Justice Department's (DOJ) call for the Supreme Court to use a pending criminal case to endorse the legal logic that has led lower courts to endorse a broad Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction test could undermine EPA's bid to repeal an Obama-era CWA rule relying on that test and replace it with a narrower jurisdiction standard. DOJ's Feb. 21 merits brief in the high court criminal case Hughes v. United States does not specifically address CWA jurisdiction. Nonetheless,...