Judge's Rejection Of CWA Delay Suit Transfer Boosts Bid For Myriad Cases

摘要

A federal district judge in a newly released opinion rejects a slew of legal arguments the Trump administration made for transferring litigation over its delay of the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule and consolidating it with suits over the rule, boosting states and environmentalists aiming to keep myriad cases over the delay separate. In a May 14 order, Judge David C. Norton of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina explains his rationale for retaining a pending case over environmentalists' bid to scrap the rule delaying to 2020 the Obama-era CWA standard, also known as the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The order comes more than a month after he first rejected the government's request to transfer South Carolina Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL), et al, v. EPA, et al, to the southern district of Texas. Relevant documents are available on lnsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 211828) The Texas court is hearing some of the suits brought by opponents of the Obama-era WOTUS rule in hopes of scrapping that policy entirely. The Department of Justice has argued that the delay and the rule itself are so closely linked that they should be considered by the same court to avoid contradictory rulings.