Last week, Venable’s Government Division offered its general thoughts on the fallout from the Supreme Court’s reversal of the long-standing Chevron deference principle. Here, the Environmental Practice Group offers some of...more
7/3/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Government Agencies ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Waters of the United States
In a monumental opinion issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overruled Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., holding (6-3) that deference to an agency's...more
7/1/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Unconstitutional Condition
Does the National Environmental Policy Act require an agency to consider environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of actions within the agency's jurisdiction? That's the question that the U.S. Supreme Court has...more
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held that the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land‑use permit conditions. Building permit...more
4/18/2024
/ Building Permits ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Construction Project ,
Fifth Amendment ,
George Sheetz v County of El Dorado ,
Impact Fees ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Development ,
SCOTUS ,
Takings Clause ,
Traffic Impact Assessments
When George Sheetz planned to build an 1800-square-foot manufactured home on his California property, he could hardly have thought his routine permit request would end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. But when the County of El...more
10/25/2023
/ Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid ,
Dolan v City of Tigard ,
Excessive Fees ,
Exemptions ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Nexus ,
Nollan v California Coastal Commission ,
Permits ,
Property Owners ,
Proportionality ,
Real Estate Development ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Takings Clause
On the surface, a dispute over whether small fishing businesses should be required to pay for onboard monitors to observe their catch would not appear to be a potential game-changer for administrative law. But when the...more
Clean Water Act practitioners have spent the past 50 years learning how to identify a wetland or water body that qualifies for federal jurisdiction—and the past 17 parsing the phrase "significant nexus." The upshot was that...more
5/31/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Inland Waterways ,
Navigable Waters ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Significant Nexus Test ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
The U.S. Supreme Court's October 2022 term began with a bang: a new Justice on the bench, the public back in the courtroom for the first time since the pandemic - and two hours of argument about the scope of federal...more
The Supreme Court concluded its momentous term last week, saving the long-anticipated West Virginia v. EPA ruling for the last day of announced opinions. The Court's decision limiting the scope of EPA's authority to regulate...more
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari on a fundamental environmental law question that has lingered for several decades - what is the appropriate definition of "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) in...more
1/28/2022
/ Certiorari ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Permits ,
Rapanos v US ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 404 ,
Significant Nexus Test ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States