CALIFORNIA FARMERS AND BUILDERS URGE U.S. SUPREME COURT TO HELP UNMUDDY THE CLEAN WATER ACT
The Clean Water Act is so unconstitutionally vague as to require direct policing by the courts, a coalition of California farming and building groups told the U.S. Supreme Court this week in a brief filed by Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP. The case,United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., presents the issue whether determinations made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that a property contains wetlands regulated by the Clean Water Act may be challenged in court. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an earlier case, held that such determinations (called “jurisdictional determinations” (or JDs)) cannot be challenged in court. But the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the Hawkes case under review, held that they can.