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- Title
Why We Need Federal Administrative Courts.
- Authors
Greve, Michael S.
- Abstract
In 2004, Michael and Chantelle Sackett acquired a parcel of land near Priest Lake, Idaho, and obtained local permits to build a home in a built-out subdivision zoned for residential construction. In 2007, when the Sacketts began construction, EPA officials ordered them to stop work and then sent them a "compliance order" claiming that the property contained a federally protected wetland. The order demanded costly restoration work, a three-year monitoring program during which the property must be left untouched, and off-site mitigation and substantial fines. Failure to comply, the EPA warned the Sacketts, might entail civil penalties up to $75,000 per day, as well as criminal sanctions. The Sacketts' administrative complaints were met with no meaningful reply. Their subsequent federal lawsuit, contending that the EPA lacked jurisdiction over the property, was met with the agency's objection that the compliance order was not a final agency action and therefore not subject to judicial review at all. In 2012, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held that the EPA's order was indeed subject to judicial review. Upon remand to the district court, further litigation ensued. In 2019, the district court determined that under the deferential standards of review that apply to the EPA's interpretation of the Clean Water Act, as well as the agency's own regulations and guidance documents, the EPA's wetlands determination was supported by adequate record evidence and neither arbitrary nor capricious. The ruling is pending on appeal.
- Subjects
ADMINISTRATIVE courts; UNITED States. Environmental Protection Agency; HOUSE construction -- Law &; legislation; CIVIL penalties
- Publication
George Mason Law Review, 2021, Vol 28, Issue 2, p765
- ISSN
1068-3801
- Publication type
Article