BREAKING: EPA Water Rule Blocked Nationwide By Sixth Circ.

The Sixth Circuit today stayed the effect of the Environmental Protection Agency's new "Clean Water Rule" nationwide, while the Court of Appeals considers whether it has original jurisdiction to hear challenges to the regulation or whether those challenges should proceed first in the federal district courts. Among other reasons, the court said staying the Rule would remove uncertainty and confusion by restoring a uniform definition of "waters of the United States" nationwide. Before today, the prior regulatory definition of waters of the United States was in effect in 13 states where the federal district court for North Dakota had enjoyed the new Clean Water Rule; the new Rule's definition applied in the rest of the country.