As Use Of ‘Major Questions’ Grows, Court Extends Doctrine To Citizen Suits

As federal courts expand their use of the major questions doctrine to block agency action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is expanding its application beyond direct challenges to those actions to also block private party attempts to compel such action in environmental citizen suits. In an Aug. 7 opinion in North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group, et al., v. Capt. Gaston LLC, et al. , a three-judge panel dismissed a North Carolina fishery group’s Clean Water...