United States Army Corp of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc. (578 U.S. 590)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 31, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 578 U.S. 590 · 136 S. Ct. 1807
- Docket
- No. 15-290
- Argued
- March 30, 2016
- Decided
- May 31, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts (wrote), Justice Kennedy (wrote a concurrence), Justice Thomas (joined a concurrence), Justice Ginsburg (wrote a concurrence), Justice Breyer, Justice Alito (joined a concurrence), Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan (wrote a concurrence)
Oral argument transcript and advocates · Opinion on Justia
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. The Clean Water Act regulates the discharge of pollutants into "the waters of the United States." 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a), 1362(7), (12). Because it can be difficult to determine whether a particular parcel of property contains such waters, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will issue to property owners an "approved jurisdictional determination" stating the agency's definitive view on that matter. See 33 CFR § 331.2 and pt. 331, App. C (2015). The question presented is whether that determination is final agency action judicially reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 704. I A The Clean Water Act prohibits "the discharge of any pollutant" without a permit into "navigable waters," which it defines, in turn, as "the waters of the United States." 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a), 1362(7), (12). During the time period relevant to this case, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defined the waters of the United States to include land areas occasionally or regularly saturated with water-such as "mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, [and] playa lakes"-the "use, degradation or destruction of which could affect interstate or foreign commerce." 33 CFR § 328.3(a)(3) (2012). The Corps has applied that definition to assert jurisdiction over "270-to-300 million acres of swampy lands in the United…
Excerpt of a 20,515-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.