On March 21, 2012, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court chided the Environmental Protection Agency for “strong-arming” regulated parties in wetlands disputes and overturned decades of EPA regulatory practice under the Clean Water Act. The instant impact of the ruling in Sackett v. EPA is that a property owner can now go to court immediately to dispute EPA’s jurisdiction over an owner’s alleged wetlands.

The longer-term impact may be that property owners charged with noncompliance under the Clean Air Act and several other similar environmental statutes could be given their day in court earlier as well. For manufacturers, this case could ultimately mean quicker and more favorable resolutions of environmental compliance disputes.