Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers

Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook Cty. v. Army Corps of Engineers
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 31, 2000 Decided January 9, 2001
Full case name	Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County. v. Army Corps of Engineers, et al.
Citations	531 U.S. 159 (more) 121 S. Ct. 675; 148 L. Ed. 2d 576; 2001 U.S. LEXIS 640
Case history
Prior	163 F.R.D. 268 (N.D. Ill. 1995); affirmed in part, reversed in part, 101 F.3d 503 (7th Cir. 1996); 998 F. Supp. 946 (N.D. Ill. 1998); affirmed; 191 F.3d 845 (7th Cir. 1999); cert. granted, 529 U.S. 1129 (2000).
Subsequent	Remanded, 248 F.3d 1159 (7th Cir. 2001).
Holding
The migratory bird rule exceeds the scope of the Clean Water Act, as interpreted by the EPA.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Laws applied
Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1344

Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159 (2001), was a decision by the US Supreme Court that interpreted a provision of the Clean Water Act. Section 404^[1] of the Act requires permits for the discharge of dredged or fill materials into "navigable waters," which is defined by the Act as "waters of the United States." That provision was the basis for the federal wetlands-permitting program.

The Court held that the use of the Corps of Engineers of the long-controversial "migratory bird rule," adopted by the Corps and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to interpret the reach of its Section 404 authority over discharges into "isolated waters" (including isolated wetlands), exceeded the authority that was granted by that section.^[2]

Long before the SWANCC case, there had been controversy and litigation over whether isolated waters that are not adjacent to true navigable waters are properly within the jurisdiction of Section 404.^{[citation needed]} In 1985, the Supreme Court sustained the assertion by the Corps and EPA that waters and wetlands adjacent to navigable waters, interstate waters, or their tributaries are "waters of the United States" under Section 404. The question left for SWANCC was whether waters and wetlands not so adjacent, "isolated waters," are also so covered.