Court Blocks Enforcement of 2015 WOTUS Rule; Twenty-Four States Now Have Injunction

As the Trump Administration faces the long task to “repeal and replace” the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, district courts have become the latest battleground. On June 8, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued an injunction on the 2015 rule, effectively shielding 11 states as their challenge of the rule moves through the court. An existing injunction has been in place since 2015 covering 13 other states, bringing the total number of states protected by an injunction to twenty-four. District courts are also handling requests for injunctions in Ohio and Texas.

Meanwhile, environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California on June 13 (joining cases in New York and South Carolina) to challenge the administration’s recent rule to delay applicability of the 2015 rule by two years. Although the 2015 rule currently remains delayed until 2020; these injunctions add a backstop should the cases against the delay rule prevail.

For more information, contact Melinda Tomaino at tomainom@agc.org.