Conservative High Court Could Change Course of Environmental Cases

Bloomberg Environment & Energy Report
July 9, 2018
"Conservative High Court Could Change Course of Environmental Cases"

Sarah Bell was quoted in Bloomberg Environment & Energy Report on how a conservative bench could reshape national policy.  Specifically, Ms. Bell discussed a conservative Supreme Court’s potential impact on the Clean Water Act. In the article, Ms. Bell said that she could see a scenario in which a more conservative Supreme Court makes it harder for plaintiffs suing under the Clean Water Act to establish the “significant nexus” that Justice Anthony Kennedy referenced in his concurrence in Rapanos.

It’s more likely that future Supreme Court decisions will chip away at standards and precedents established in prior Supreme Court decisions and the offspring of those opinions, Ms. Bell said.

Ms. Bell said she wouldn’t be surprised to see a more conservative court reject the idea of “indirect discharges” where the Clean Water Act regulates point source discharges that reach navigable water via groundwater.