Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
90 F. Supp. 3d 1177 (2015)

- Written by Alex Ruskell, JD
Facts
Under the Clean Water Act, every two years each state had to generate a list of impaired water bodies for which pollution controls were insufficient to meet water-quality standards. These lists had to then be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval. Washington and Oregon submitted lists that failed to list any coastal waters as impaired by ocean acidification. These lists were then approved by the EPA. Acidification harmed ocean life, especially shellfish. The Center for Biological Diversity (plaintiff) sued the Environmental Protection Agency (defendant), arguing that its approval of the lists violated the arbitrary and capricious standard of administrative rulemaking.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Robart, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 814,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.