On March 21, 2012, the Supreme Court found in Sackett v. EPA that the Sackett family has the right to a pre-enforcement review of an EPA compliance order under the Clean Water Act. The Court found that the EPA’s compliance order constituted a final agency action because the order “mark[ed] the ‘consummation’ of the agency’s decisionmaking process.” The Court rejected the EPA’s argument that the CWA impliedly precludes judicial review. The Court stated that the Administrative Procedure Act carries a presumption of judicial review of agency actions, which “is a repudiation of the principle that efficiency of regulation conquers all.”
