Supreme Court Renders Decision in Sackett v. EPA

Yesterday, the Supreme Court rendered its highly anticipated ruling in Sackett v. EPA, No. 10-1062, unanimously reversing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and holding that EPA administrative compliance orders under the Clean Water Act (CWA) are subject to pre-enforcement judicial review. This is a major blow to EPA’s historical enforcement practices and gives highly valuable rights to recipients of unilateral Agency CWA directives. Further, the case has considerable implications beyond CWA enforcement, with Justice Scalia’s opinion taking clear aim at the reviewability of other EPA orders issued under other, similar statutory authority.