[20180131]LSB10069_最高法院认为对清洁水规则的质疑必须从联邦地区法院开始.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress LegalLegal SidebarSidebar Clean Water Rule Challenges Must Begin in Federal District Courts, Supreme Court Holds January 31, 2018 In National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) v. Department of Defense, the Supreme Court held that legal challenges to the 2015 Clean Water Rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) must be litigated in multiple federal district courts rather than in a consolidated case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Sixth Circuit). Since October 2015, a Sixth Circuit order had stayed implementation of the Clean Water Rule on a nationwide basis pending the courts determination of its jurisdiction over the challenge to the Rule. But the Supreme Courts NAM decision, which requires the Sixth Circuit to dismiss its case, will result in the elimination of that order, and potentially could complicate legal challenges to the Clean Water Rule and the Trump Administrations effort to rescind and replace it. Background on NAM and the Clean Water Rule Also known as the “Waters of the United States” or WOTUS Rule, the Clean Water Rule attempts