A Texas federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule in the state of Texas.
Federal Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sunday granted the motion for injunctive relief in response to a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in January. (pdf)
In late December, the federal agency announced its revised definition of WOTUS, prompting Paxton’s lawsuit.
“Under the WOTUS rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (‘EPA’) and the U.S. Department of Army are seeking to grow federal administrative power by expanding limits of their own jurisdiction far beyond what Congress delegated to them,” Paxton wrote in a press release in January announcing the lawsuit. “By design, Congress expressly limited their jurisdiction to ‘navigable waters.’”…