This entry provides an update to our blog post on February 23, 2016 regarding the Sixth Circuit’s decision that it has jurisdiction to adjudicate challenges to the EPA-Army Corps WOTUS rule. On August 16, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals stayed 10 states’ lawsuit challenging the WOTUS rule. In reaching its decision to stay the case, the Eleventh Circuit explained that “The case before us and the case before the Sixth Circuit involve the same parties on each side, the same jurisdictional and merits issues, and the same requested relief.” Accordingly, the Court held that adjudicating the states’ case “would be a colossal waste of judicial resources” and “there is no good reason not to stay our hand in the present case until the Sixth Circuit decides the case before it.”
The states in the Eleventh Circuit case are Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.