Opinion analysis: Challenges to the WOTUS rule must begin in district court

The federal government’s attempts to define the statutory phrase “waters of the United States” — and in turn, to establish the geographic reach of the federal government’s regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act — have repeatedly spurred litigation over the years. Most recently, when the Obama administration issued the “Clean Water Rule,” also known as the Waters of the United States Rule, over 100 parties across the country sued to challenge it. In today’s opinion in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court unanimously held that those lawsuits must be filed in federal district courts rather than federal courts of appeals. Although the decision says nothing about the rule’s merits, it resolves an important procedural and strategic quandary and will have ripple effects beyond this case. The dispute over the appropriate federal forum is…

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