Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center
United States Supreme Court
133 S. Ct. 1326 (2013)
Logging companies (defendants) built roads causing sediment-laden stormwater runoff into rivers without obtaining Clean Water Act discharge permits, relying on the EPA's longstanding interpretation of its own Industrial Stormwater Rule as not covering logging-road runoff because it wasn't directly related to fixed industrial-plant operations; an environmental group (plaintiff) sued, and the court of appeals held permits were required, rejecting the EPA's interpretation. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, and shortly before argument the EPA amended the rule to clarify that only specific logging activities (like rock crushing) required permits.
Whether, under administrative law, federal courts must defer to a federal agency's reasonable interpretation of the agency's own ambiguous regulations.