Washington, D.C.
A sharply divided Supreme Court this week came close to overturning a major environmental law, setting the scene for additional battles over federal wetlands protection. In a case testing the reach of the Clean Water Act, four conservative justices said the government may only block development on wetlands found to have a “continuous surface connection” to a body of water. Four liberal justices said that standard would gut enforcement of wetland laws. With the court split down the middle, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the controlling opinion, which sent the case back to federal agencies with the guidance that wetlands should have a “significant nexus” with waterways to justify federal intervention. Environmentalists said they had “dodged a bullet.” But Chief Justice John Roberts, part of the conservative wing, wrote that in the wake of the muddled decision, “lower courts and regulated entities will have to feel their way forward on a case-by-case basis.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How the FCC’s ‘equal time’ rule worksIn the Spotlight The law is at the heart of the Colbert-CBS conflict
-
What is the endgame in the DHS shutdown?Today’s Big Question Democrats want to rein in ICE’s immigration crackdown
-
‘Poor time management isn’t just an inconvenience’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
