High Court Asked to Limit EPA’s Power to Regulate Wetlands (1)

Idaho landowners urged the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a new framework for deciding whether a wetland is among “waters of the United States” subject to Clean Water Act regulation.

Under their proposed two-step framework, courts would first consider whether a wetland is “inseparably bound up with” a stream, river, lake or other water. It would then consider whether the water is among waters of the United States—or WOTUS—Michael and Chantell Sackett told the court Monday.

Applying the framework here would show that the Sacketts’ property doesn’t contain WOTUS, and the Environmental Protecting Agency therefore lacks authority over the property, ...