It looks like the days of wine and roses—and impunity—for the EPA are over. For the second time in as many years, the Supreme Court has rebuked the agency for expanding its jurisdiction without congressional authorization. 

Last year, the court ended the EPA’s attempts to regulate carbon dioxide as a “pollutant.” Now they’ve unanimously rebuked the agency from attempting to regulate all  land with water on or even near it as part of the Clean Water Act. Justice Alito ended five decades of capricious regulatory actions by seriously limiting the “Waters of the U.S.” rule to a common-sense definition. 

After 19 years, the Sackett family prevailed—delivering a blow for liberty and the rule of law over the administrative state.

The court will have another opportunity to strike a much bigger blow against the entire bureaucratic state in the Loper Bright case. 

Let’s hope they choose to act for the rule of law over the administrative state then as well.