Supreme Court’s Clean Air Ruling Risks Enforcement Divide (1)

The US Supreme Court’s new standard for when the Environmental Protection Agency can move Clean Air Act enforcement disputes to the D.C. Circuit has the potential to create circuit splits and disparate rulemaking for clean air standards, legal observers say.

In an unanimous opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas Wednesday, the high court raised the bar for the agency to steer challenges over ozone pollution State Implementation Plans to its preferred venue, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Only EPA actions where “justification of a nationwide breadth is the primary explanation” can be transferred to that forum, ...