Attorney General Applauds Supreme Court Ruling on WOTUS Question
It’s the latest chapter in the ongoing legal battle over the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule.
Spokesman for Attorney General Tim Fox, Eric Sell said a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing continuation of legal challenges to the WOTUS policy is a win for many western states..
“The state of Montana filed a legal challenge with 12 other states including North Dakota challenging the EPA’s authority to promulgate the Waters of the U.S. rule,” Sell said. “There were several legal challenges filed over this rule, some of them in federal district court. What the Supreme Court did on Tuesday was to decide that the proper venues to hear these legal challenges are the various district courts rather than circuit courts.”
Sell said that’s a win for Montana.
“That’s the position we advocated for,” he said. “We think it’s important for a district court with an expertise in water law in a similar state such as North Dakota be the place where our legal concerns over this rule are heard. It’s a big win for Montana and the rule of law, and we’re hoping that these legal challenges will go all the way to the Supreme Court, so that no future presidential administration will be able to issue a rule that violates the law like the Obama administration did with Waters of the U.S.”
In February of last year, President Trump issued an executive order directing the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to begin a new rulemaking process for Clean Water Act enforcement, effectively repealing the WOTUS rule.