SALT LAKE CITY — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court sided with the states of Oklahoma and Utah in a case of where legal challenges to air quality regulations are heard.
The litigation centered around accusations of "forum shopping," where lawsuits challenging air quality regulations are filed in venues considered friendlier to them. The justices declared that regional courts can apply, instead of shipping them to a circuit court in Washington, D.C.
"...these cases are not ones where the 'nationwide scope or effect' exception applies. Accordingly, as with most locally or regionally applicable actions, petitioners’ challenges can be heard only in a regional Circuit," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the opinion.
In a statement to FOX 13 News, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown praised the ruling.
"The Court agreed with Utah’s argument involving the Clean Air Act that local courts should handle local issues, and the federal government should collaborate with the states —not ignore their unique differences," he said, adding: "We are also grateful to the Trump Administration’s EPA for reconsidering its ruling that required litigation in the first place, and look forward to our continued partnership on behalf of Utah."
The group Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, which has brought litigation over air quality violations, criticized the ruling.
"This Supreme Court seems determined to undermine the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, and unfortunately they have continued that pattern with this ruling. Common sense and the public good should be part of the legal equation and this ruling defies both," said Dr. Brian Moench, UPHE's President. "It is also regrettable that the state of Utah is once again an eager litigant in many of these attempts to make it easier for dirty energy industries to increase the pollution that is harming Utahns along the Wasatch Front and throughout the state."
Read the ruling here:
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