Supreme Court Ruling Stymies Suits Against Permits, Developments

Green groups are reassessing the scope and nature of their future challenges to developments or infrastructure projects in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the scope of required environmental impact studies.

Thursday’s unanimous ruling in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado clarified that courts’ only role in assessing the legality of federal project approvals under the National Environmental Policy Act is to “confirm that the agency has addressed environmental consequences and feasible alternatives as to the relevant project.”

The opinion authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh checked lower courts’ “overly intrusive” interpretations of the bedrock environmental ...