2020 in the Courts: A Preview
Originally published on Legal Planet.
There are going to be some significant environmental cases over the next year. In addition, some important new cases will be filed now or in the near future, which may produce some interesting rulings. It will probably take more than a year, however, for some of the big new cases down the turnpike to result in their first level of judicial opinions, let alone reach completion.
The Supreme Court
The Court agreed last spring to hear two environmental cases this year. The first, County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, No. 18-260, will be argued on November 6. The issue is whether the Clean Water Act requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source, such as groundwater.
The second case was Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian, No. 17-1498. It's a Superfund case involving a number of fairly technical legal issues, the most interesting of which involve the relationship between the Superfund law and state laws. The Court seems to like taking Superfund cases, maybe because they involve civil liability issues that the Court feels comfortable with. Given the make-up of the Court …
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