On Friday, March 27, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the vacatur of EPA’s approval of Florida’s Clean Water Act § 404 permitting program, holding that the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on several grounds, including by deferring the review of key species protections to a later state-implemented “technical assistance” process.

In an analogy, Judge Florence Pan likened the federal agencies’ approach in this case to a DMV issuing vehicle registrations based solely on a promise that inspections would occur later: “The DMV manager . . . says to the inspector, ‘Well, if you believe it’s good enough that he promises that the trucks will comply with the safety regulations, and if he says that he’ll ask you for help if he has any questions . . . go ahead and certify that all his trucks have passed inspection, and I’ll issue the registrations.’”

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