Supreme Court sides with Idaho landowners against EPA

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 22, 2012 | Bettina Boxall and David G. Savage

[WilliamIII]

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington— The Supreme Court strengthened the rights of property owners who are confronted by federal environmental regulators, ruling Wednesday that landowners are entitled to a hearing to challenge the government's threats to fine them for alleged Clean Water Act violations.

The 9-0 decision revolved around procedural matters and did not resolve questions about the reach of the act, which has been the subject of different legal interpretations.

But it is a victory for an Idaho couple, Mike and Chantell Sackett, who faced fines of up to $75,000 a day if they didn't restore a small wetland the Environmental Protection Agency said they had filled on a Bonner County lot where they planned to build their home.

When the Sacketts, who contended there were no wetlands on the property, sought to challenge the compliance order, they were told by EPA officials and later by a federal judge and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that they had no right to a hearing. Instead, they were told to comply with the order first and then seek a permit to resume building. They weren't entitled to a hearing until the agency had imposed a fine on them, the appeals court said.

Reversing the 9th Circuit, the high court concluded that the Sacketts had a right to sue the government at an early stage. The court did not rule on whether they had violated clean water regulations.

The couple were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property rights group. The EPA "can't order property owners to dance like marionettes while denying them any meaningful right to appeal to the courts," said attorney Damien Schiff, who argued the case. The agency "will have to change its enforcement techniques for the better," he said.

[bluecat6]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/21/supreme-court-sides-with-idaho-property-owners-over-epa/

If you watch the video in the Fox article and go to 2:12 it quotes a report on the agency from the chamber of commerce.

“EPA actually trains its personnel to make the terms of unilateral orders ‘ugly, onerous and tough’ and ‘very unpleasant’ in order to coerce settlements.”

If the someone told me the government did things that were ‘ugly, onerous, tough and very unpleasant...to coerce...’ I would have thought they were talking about interrogation methods at Gitmo - Not how to unilaterally and without any due process go after average US citizens whose property may or may not be wetlands and far away from running water.

[LucyT]

History:

N. Idaho couple battle “overzealous” EPA (Private Land Rights Violated)
The Coeur d’ Alene Press ^ | October 12, 2011 | The Coeur d’ Alene Press

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2791891/posts

.

Check out # 60 at this link:

EPA to property owner: ‘Your land is our land’ ($40 million in fines pending)
WorldNetDaily ^ | Sept. 23, 2011 | Bob Unruh

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2783174/posts

[LucyT]

. . . . . .

The Sackett land:

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Awesome quote.

[goat granny]

One of his best series of books...loved all of l’mours story telling...then he up and dies on us and no more Louis Lamour books....:O(

[loveliberty2]

Thank you! Please post and/or distribute it as widely as you can, for the masses need to know that our Constitution was never intended to allow such flagrant violations of Creator’s law and our own Constitutional law.