“Supreme Court delivers lesson in humility to arrogant agency.”
The Washington Times editorializes:
Federal agencies are out of control. The grant of virtually unlimited power with no accountability has gone to the heads of some unelected bureaucrats, and nowhere is that more true than at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Even the Supreme Court has had enough. All nine justices agreed Wednesday that the agency has finally gone too far…
The high court’s decision only referred in passing to the underlying merits of the EPA’s case, which are severely lacking. Mr. Paul introduced the Defense of Environment and Property Act to remedy the situation. His bill clarifies that “navigable waters” actually mean large, continuously flowing bodies of water, not sand pits, intermittent streams or dry land with a lake view.
Such legislation is long overdue because the bureaucracy is fundamentally broken. Instead of serving a legitimate, limited need, EPA is focused on expanding its own power. The Sacketts may have prevailed in their expensive, five-year fight, but thousands more businesses and individuals have taken the safer road of compliance with irrational demands – at a tremendous cost to our economy. As long as these self-serving bureaucrats are allowed to distract American industry, recovery will remain elusive.