Supreme Court sides with San Francisco on EPA water discharge rules

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules for the city of San Francisco under the Clean Water Act are overly vague, siding with the city after it appealed a lower court’s decision.

San Francisco appealed the case to the Supreme Court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the EPA 2-1. In oral arguments before the court last October, the city argued the EPA’s discharge regulations could leave the city liable based on factors beyond its control.

“They might as well have said: Do not violate the Clean Water Act,” Tara Steeley, an attorney for the city, told the court.

In the ruling, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the statute requires the agency to outline specific limits on sewer overflows, rather than the generic limits that prompted San Francisco to sue.

“Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination,” Alito wrote. “If the EPA does what the CWA demands, water quality will not suffer.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s liberal bloc, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. In a partial dissent, Barrett called the majority conclusion “puzzling,” writing “[i]t is commonplace for ‘limitations’ to state “that a particular end result must be achieved and that it is up to the [recipient] to figure out what it should do.’”

“For example, a company could impose spending ‘limitations’ by requiring each branch to spend no more than its allotted budget, while still leaving branch managers flexibility to determine how to allocate those funds,” she added.

The ruling marks the court’s first ruling on a case pertaining to EPA authorities since it struck down the long-standing Chevron doctrine, which held that federal agencies rather than courts have broad latitude in interpreting ambiguities in the language of the law.

Topics

Supreme Court Deals Blow to E.P.A. in Dispute Over Federal Water Rules

The 5-to-4 decision is the latest setback for the agency and could have sweeping implications for curtailing water pollution offshore.
The New York Times - 2h
Supreme Court unanimously sides with Hungary in Holocaust survivors’ lawsuit

The Supreme Court unanimously sided with Hungary on Friday by rejecting a group of Holocaust survivors’ legal theory that sought to haul the country into American courts to pay compensation. The ...
The Hill - Feb. 21
Supreme Court may side with Ohio woman on "reverse discrimination" case

The Supreme Court appears poised to side with an Ohio woman who alleges that she was denied a promotion and demoted because she is straight. CBS News' Catherine Cole reports.
CBS News - 5d
Supreme Court Poised to Rule for Straight Woman in Discrimination Case

Justices across the ideological spectrum and lawyers on both sides agreed that an appeals court erred in requiring members of majority groups to meet a heightened burden.
The New York Times - 6d
Trump Targets the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, a Pelosi Achievement

President Trump seeks to significantly pare back the Presidio Trust, which oversees a signature park near the Golden Gate Bridge.
The New York Times - Feb. 21
Reporter's Notebook: Who took these mystery photos of 1960s San Francisco?

A Bay area photographer is raising money to find the photographer behind a trove of photographs from San Francisco in the 1960s, capturing cultural icons like Muhammed Ali, Janis Joplin and Alan ...
CBS News - 3d
San Francisco 49ers owners set to complete Rangers takeover deal

Reports say 49ers Enterprises to take 51% stake in club Due diligence now set to begin on offer A takeover deal for Rangers is set to be completed, with the owners of the San Francisco 49ers on ...
The Guardian - 1d
Supreme Court turns away bid to overturn ruling on abortion clinic buffer zones

The Supreme Court turned away two appeals asking the justices to overrule a 25-year-old decision that allowed for buffer zones around abortion clinics.
CBS News - Feb. 24
How FDR-era Supreme Court ruling relates to disputes over Trump firings

President Trump's firings of the members of independent agencies and boards have prompted a string of legal fights that could set the Supreme Court up to reconsider and potentially overturn a ...
CBS News - 6d