Ouch! For the second time in one week, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. chastised the Office of Solicitor General for not being more forthcoming, this time in a case involving the logging industry and water pollution.
In Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center (consolidated with Georgia-Pacific West v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center), the logging industry, a large number of states, and the Obama administration challenged a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appellate court had rejected the Environmental Protection Agency’s position that the Clean Water Act does not require permits for stormwater runoff from ditches and culverts on roads used by the industry to harvest lumber.
