SCOTUS takes a whiz in WOTUS

[TheVat]

From Politico today:

The Supreme Court on Thursday significantly shrank the reach of federal clean water protections, dealing a major blow to President Joe Biden’s efforts to restore protections to millions of acres of wetlands and delivering a victory to multiple powerful industries.

The ruling from the court’s conservative majority vastly narrowing the federal government’s authority over marshes and bogs is a win for industries such as homebuilding and oil and gas, which must seek Clean Water Act permits to damage federally protected wetlands. Those industries have fought for decades to limit the law’s reach.

The ruling comes less than a year after the high court issued a contentious ruling restricting EPA’s ability to regulate climate warming gases, and liberal Justice Elena Kagan decried Thursday that the court has appointed “itself as the national decision-maker on environmental policy.”

The 5-4 ruling in Sackett v. EPA creates a far narrower test than what has been used for more than half a century to determine which bogs and marshes fall under the scope of the 1972 law. Under the majority’s definition, only those wetlands with a continuous surface water connection to larger streams, lakes and rivers would get federal protections.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, wrote in the majority opinion that only those wetlands that are “indistinguishable” from those larger waters should be covered.

“Wetlands that are separate from traditional navigable waters cannot be considered part of those waters, even if they are located nearby,” Alito wrote.

The court’s liberals, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, disagreed with that test, arguing that it cuts out a broad swath of wetlands that are important to Clean Water Act’s goal of protecting the nation’s waters...

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/25/supreme-court-dramatically-shrinks-clean-water-acts-reach-00098781

In case the thread title was unclear, here's a bit about WOTUS...

https://www.epa.gov/wotus/current-implementation-waters-united-states

 

[iNow]

Gotta keep owning the libs /derp

[CharonY]

Yes, pollution famously does not spread in any shape or form.

[npts2020]

5 hours ago, TheVat said:

The ruling from the court’s conservative majority vastly narrowing the federal government’s authority over marshes and bogs is a win for industries such as homebuilding and oil and gas, which must seek Clean Water Act permits to damage federally protected wetlands. Those industries have fought for decades to limit the law’s reach.

Friendliness to corporate interests has been the primary prerequisite for nomination to SCOTUS for decades, not any views about abortion, guns, drugs etc. Those doing the nominating don't care about any of the latter except that it's useful politically to not solve any of those latter things.

[iNow]

4 minutes ago, npts2020 said:

Friendliness to corporate interests has been the primary prerequisite for nomination to SCOTUS for decades, not any views about abortion, guns, drugs etc. Those doing the nominating don't care about any of the latter except that it's useful politically to not solve any of those latter things.

How does Ketanji Brown Jackson fit within this narrative?

[npts2020]

10 minutes ago, iNow said:

How does Ketanji Brown Jackson fit within this narrative?

Not sure yet. I do know she relieved Boeing and anyone else being sued as a result of the Malaysian Airlines flight 370 crash a few years ago from any accountability in US courts. It seems most of her rulings and activity have been tangential or irrelevant to large corporate interests but I would be happy to be corrected, after all, you have 8-9 years of district and appellate court activity to choose from.