Ninth Circuit Considers Judicial Review Powers in Water Case

A panel of Ninth Circuit judges on Tuesday wrestled with whether a lower court was right to vacate and remand to the EPA a Clean Water Act rule without first finding that the rule broke the law.

“The district court did not review the merits of the case at all,” George Sibley, an attorney representing the American Petroleum Institute, said during Tuesday’s oral arguments before the panel at the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. That court, he said, “did not make any findings or direct the agency to do anything on remand.”

The case—three consolidated appeals ...