Republican lawmakers and red states are calling on the nation’s highest bench to move some EPA cases out of a powerful federal appeals court that tends to defer to agencies.
In a set of amicus briefs docketed Friday, the states and legislators told the Supreme Court that federal judges in Colorado got it wrong when they tossed an EPA air case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which the Clean Air Act says must review “nationally applicable” actions.
“On its logic, the federal government can now forum shop to its heart’s content,” Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Roger Marshall of Kansas wrote in their amicus brief.
The case the lawmakers weighed in on, Oklahoma v. EPA, will be argued next year and decided by early summer. The challenge seeks to upend a decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said lawsuits over EPA’s denial of state air plans must be heard by the D.C. Circuit.
