Attorney general applauds high court decision on water rule
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota's attorney general is applauding a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognizes federal district courts as the forum to hear legal challenges to an Obama administration rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem led a coalition of 12 states that obtained the first preliminary injunction against the "Waters of the U.S. Rule" in 2015 in North Dakota, arguing it would greatly and unlawfully expand the federal government's authority over states' land and water and the ability to control pollution.
The rule has never taken effect because of lawsuits and is now under review by President Donald Trump's administration.
Stenehjem says he'll ask the federal district court to resume North Dakota's case as soon as possible now that the jurisdiction issue has been resolved.
Supreme Court hops into case of endangered dusky gopher frog
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says it will take up a dispute over Louisiana timberland that the federal government called critical habitat for an endangered frog found only in Mississippi.
The justices agreed Monday to review a lower-court ruling that upheld a federal agency's designation of the 1,500-acre (607-hectare) tract owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co. and others as the only potential breeding ground outside Mississippi for dusky gopher frogs.
The frog spends most of its life underground and travels to above-ground ponds only to breed.
The Pacific Legal Foundation has called the designation an "unprecedented abuse of the Endangered Species Act," since the frogs haven't lived in Louisiana since 1965 and couldn't live there again without changes to the land. The foundation represents other landowners in the same litigation.
But Collette Adkins, an attorney for the conservation group Center for Biological Diversity, called on the court to uphold the designation. "The Fish and Wildlife Service followed the unanimous advice of frog experts in deciding to protect essential habitat of these critically endangered frogs," Adkins said.
Supreme Court sides with police over partygoers in DC case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is siding with police over partygoers in a dispute about arrests at a bash at a vacant home.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police had sufficient reason to arrest the partygoers. It threw out an award of $680,000 plus attorney fees to some revelers who sued.
The case stems from a 2008 party at a District of Columbia duplex.
Police called by neighbors arrived to find the home had been turned into something resembling a strip club. A person whom some identified as the party's host wasn't present when police arrived, and she eventually told them by phone that she had invited people to the home without the homeowner's permission.
Nearly two dozen people were arrested for trespassing, though charges were later dropped.
Supreme Court: Water rule suits should begin in trial courts
WASHINGTON (AP) - Opponents of an Obama administration rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution now know which courts should be hearing their lawsuits.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that litigation over the rule should begin in the lowest level of federal courts, not in the federal courts of appeal. The rule has never taken effect because of lawsuits and is now under review by President Donald Trump's administration.
The 2015 rule sought to settle a debate over which waterways are covered under the Clean Water Act. The debate has dragged on for years and remained murky despite two Supreme Court rulings.
President Barack Obama's administration redefined "waters of the United States" protected under the act to include smaller creeks and wetlands.
Published: Tue, Jan 23, 2018
