Page:Sackett v. EPA (2023).pdf/2

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Against that backdrop, the Court in Rapanos vacated a lower court decision that had held that the CWA covered wetlands near ditches and drains that emptied into navigable waters several miles away. As to the rationale for vacating, however, no position in Rapanos commanded a majority of the Court. Four Justices concluded that the CWA’s coverage was limited to certain relatively permanent bodies of water connected to traditional interstate navigable waters and to wetlands that are “as a practical matter indistinguishable” from those waters. Id., at 755 (emphasis deleted). Justice Kennedy, concurring only in the judgment, wrote that CWA jurisdiction over adjacent wetlands