ANTI-ENVIRONMENT

SCOTUS Limits EPA’s Power to Protect Wetlands, Further Gutting Agency

Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion restricts what officially qualifies as protected wetlands under the Clean Water Act.

The Supreme Court has ruled to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to protect wetlands, further decimating the agency's power to safeguard the environment. In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, conservative justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett ruled 5-4 against the agency, CNN reported. The case arose from a dispute between a couple in Idaho who wanted to fill in a lake-adjacent wetland in order to build a home on it, a move the EPA attempted to block under the Clean Water Act. In the majority opinion, Justice Alito wrote that the wetlands aren't technically “waters” and that the act only applies to wetlands “with a continuous surface connection” to larger bodies of water, like lakes and rivers. The ruling comes after the court last year slashed the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions in another case.