Supreme Court and Wetlands Cases

SUPREME COURT SHOULD LIMIT WETLANDS LAW TO WETLANDS

Date: February 21, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Roger J. Marzulla
202-822-6760

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in two cases which will determine just how far the land use regulations of the U. S. Army extend. The companion cases of John Rapanos and June Carabell, both coming to the Court from Michigan, will determine the extent to which the Corps of Engineers can control land-based activities on the strength of its Clean Water Act jurisdiction. Mr. Rapanos was fined $185,000.00 for his land filling activities, while Ms. Carabell was blocked from building condominiums on low-lying land near Detroit.

“The principal problem is that Congress never authorized the Corps to make land use decisions,” said Roger Marzulla, a Washington, D.C. attorney who defends federal wetlands prosecutions. “As a result, the Corps is like a bull in a china shop, sending properly approved development plans crashing to the ground at huge expense to the property owners. Five years ago, in a case from Illinois, the Supreme Court struck down a Corps’ attempt to control ‘isolated wetlands,’ but that hasn’t slowed the Corps down at all.”

Last year, Roger Marzulla successfully defended the case of Herb and Marion Kincaid, a retired couple who own a beachfront home near Caseville, Michigan, along the shore of Saginaw Bay. The Corps sued the Kincaids for millions of dollars in penalties for failing to obtain a wetlands permit to groom the beach in front of their home, only to drop the case on the eve of their jury trial. The Kincaids are now seeking reimbursement of their attorneys’ fees for defending the case.

Marzulla & Marzulla is a Washington, D.C. law firm which represents clients in cases concerning wetlands, land use, zoning matters, other environmental issues and in cases involving property rights and constitutional litigation in the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. For more information go to www.marzulla.com.

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