Federal Court blocks contentious rule in 24 states
As reported on April 12 by the Daily Caller News Foundation at https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/12/federal-court-blocks-biden-wotus-rule/ District of North Dakota Judge Daniel Hovland has granted a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States rule.
The injunction comes after President Biden vetoed a bipartisan, bicameral bill last week that called for WOTUS to be repealed.
The Daily Caller posted on April 12, “The new rule, which defines what ‘navigable waters’ are subject to government regulation under the Clean Water Act, allowed the EPA to claim regulatory authority over lands containing small streams and wetlands. District of North Dakota Judge Daniel Hovland granted 24 states who sued the EPA over the rule in February a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, finding they have ‘persuasively shown that the new 2023 Rule poses a threat to their sovereign rights and amounts to irreparable harm.’
“`The States involved in this litigation will expend unrecoverable resources complying with a rule unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny,’ the court found.”
Quoting Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s April 12 comments, the Daily Caller continued, “The Court has granted our motion for preliminary injunction halting President Biden’s unconstitutional WOTUS rule. His interpretation of WOTUS is nothing more than a land grab usurping the rights of Missouri farmers to control their property.”
And Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is quoted by Daily Caller as saying, “Hovland also stated that the rule appears to ‘directly’ affect landowners who are now ‘potentially subject to federal jurisdiction and permitting requirements,’ forcing them to ‘undertake expensive assessments or forego their activities.’
He noted the ‘dire need’ for clarification on what constitutes a navigable water, holding out hope that the Supreme Court’s pending decision in Sackett v. EPA will settle the issue.
A huge win for Indiana! The District Court for North Dakota granted us a preliminary injunction for our multi-state lawsuit challenging the new WOTUS rule. Now, the overreaching rule can’t be implemented or enforced in our state. Read the decision here: https://t.co/9B90EvuqaU .”
Judge Hovland is quoted as saying, “Until then, every state will continue to swim in waters of uncertainty, ambiguity, and chaos.”
The Daily Caller noted that the EPA “did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
