Land Use and Environmental Law Briefing

There have been several recent developments concerning the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("Corps") over wetlands under the Clean Water Act: the U.S. Supreme Court’s agreeing to hear two wetlands cases, the Ninth Circuit’s issuing a decision regarding the Corps’ jurisdiction over wetlands, and the Corps’ publishing a draft regional supplement to its 1987 wetland delineation manual for the arid west.

On October 11, 2005, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases concerning the scope of the Corps’ jurisdiction over wetlands under the Clean Water Act: United States v. Rapanos, 376 F.3d 629 (6th Cir. 2004), and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 391 F.3d 704 (6th Cir. 2004). The Supreme Court