Couple's epic war with EPA returns to Supreme Court

The Sacketts, when their fight with the EPA began years ago

WND is now on Trump's Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews

It already has been 12 years since Michael and Chantell Sackett, fighting the Environmental Protection Agency's claim that their suburban home building site in Idaho was a protected "wetlands," were at the Supreme Court the first time.

That was when the federal bureaucracy demanded that they didn't even have the right to challenge the EPA's verdict in court.

They won, and they did, but now they're back after lower courts agreed that their smaller-than-an-acre parcel near Priest Lake is, in fact, wetlands, even though it's not wet, it's not connected to navigable waters and there are already homes on adjacent lots.

Arguments were heard in the Supreme Court on Monday, as the court opened its new term. A report at Scotusblog said Damien Schiff, a lawyer for the couple, "urged the justices to adopt a more stringent test to determine whether the [Clean Water Act] applies to a particular wetland. Under that test, Schiff explained, a wetland can be regulated only if it blends or flows into a neighboring water, and that water must be a 'water of the United States' – that is, a channel for interstate commerce. Such a test, Schiff argued, is most consistent with the text of the CWA, and it is easy to administer: 'Ordinary citizens,' Schiff stressed, 'can use their own eyes to determine' whether their property is a wetland covered by the CWA."

The report said that Deputy Solicitor General Brian Fletcher argued for the EPA that it doesn't matter whether the agency's designated "wetlands" are connected to bodies of water or not.

The report explained at the end of the arguments, "the justices appeared torn between wanting to protect the nation’s waters and the desire to have more clarity for property owners, who can face stiff fines for violating the Clean Water Act."

The law bans the discharge of pollutants, "including rocks and sands," into "navigable waters,'" and that's where the agency's agents targeted the Sacketts. They had had a small amount of fill delivered to their property so they could build their house.

Has the EPA overstepped its bounds in defining "wetlands"?

But that dry land, the EPA ordered them to acknowledge, was "wetlands" connected to "navigable waters."

The legal war actually began in 2007, when the EPA, without advance notice, ordered them to restore the land to its native state, allow the EPA to monitor them, and much more.

Justice Neil Gorsuch pointed out that the Sacketts’ property is separated from Priest Lake by a road and a row of houses, so he wondered how a landowner is supposed to know whether his property is close enough to the larger body of water that the CWA applies.

WND has reported on the battle since it began, and most recently reported on the return of the case to the Supremes.

Their circumstances of their fight actually started in 2004.

"The Sacketts' ordeal is emblematic of all that has gone wrong with the implementation of the Clean Water Act," said Schiff, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, at that time. "The Sacketts' lot lacks a surface water connection to any stream, creek, lake, or other water body, and it shouldn’t be subject to federal regulation and permitting. The Sacketts are delighted that the court has agreed to take their case a second time, and hope the court rules to bring fairness, consistency, and a respect for private property rights to the Clean Water Act’s administration."

Even presidents have been unable to agree on the resolution to the fight.

The Sacketts actually had their local building permit for the lot, and had started preparing it for a modest three-bedroom home in the partially built-out subdivision. The dry land on the lot has a sewer hookup and is zoned for residential construction. Homes already exist on nearby lots.

EDITOR’S NOTE: With what has been called the “Sovietization” of the Biden administration – including the shocking criminalization of dissent and massive weaponization of the FBI against political opponents – America is being increasingly compared to a third-world or communist dictatorship. Yet America still has one sacred institution that dictatorships from Zimbabwe to communist China don’t have: ELECTIONS. And in reality, there is no reason, despite the regime’s all-out efforts at election rigging, that the tens of millions of decent, right-thinking American voters cannot stop the Biden administration’s ever-expanding madness this November. For that reason, the September issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine insightfully covers the most electrifying and important races, illuminates the biggest issues, reveals how the latest federal takeover of elections actually violates the law, and much more. Looking forward to 2024, the issue also highlights why, to quote the chairman of a major think tank, Donald Trump “is the most towering political figure in living memory” and the person “most fit to lead” today’s America. It’s all in “STOPPING THE MADNESS: A MIDTERM ELECTION GUIDE FOR VOTERS WHO LOVE AMERICA.”

For 25 years, WND has boldly brought you the news that really matters. If you appreciate our Christian journalists and their uniquely truthful reporting and analysis, please help us by becoming a WND Insider!

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!