West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced his office has been awarded “Best Brief” by the National Association of Attorneys General for its merits brief in West Virginia v U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“I’d like to thank NAAG for this prestigious award, which speaks highly of the efforts of our office to guard against federal overreach,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Through those efforts in West Virginia v EPA, the power to decide one of the major environmental issues of the day returned to the right place to decide it: the U.S. Congress, comprised of those elected by the people to serve the people."
“I’m especially pleased that this bipartisan, national group recognizes that West Virginia has some of the finest attorneys in the land,” Attorney General Morrisey added. “(State Solicitor General) Lindsay See, (Senior Deputy Solicitor General) Michael Williams and our team deserve so much credit for their incredible efforts on our West Virginia v EPA brief.”
The Best Brief Awards are given annually to honor appellate practitioners from state attorney general offices who have exhibited superb work in representing their states before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The winners were selected by a panel of independent Supreme Court experts who are members of the Supreme Court bar and are experienced Supreme Court practitioners. This year the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office was one of the two winning briefs out of 39 submissions.
In West Virginia v EPA, the Supreme Court in June overturned a lower court ruling in a 6-3 decision that would have given the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency virtually unlimited authority to regulate wide swaths of everyday life. In particular, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals mistakenly concluded that a narrow provision of federal law grants EPA broad authority to reorder entire economic sectors, such as manufacturing, hotels and power generation in broad ways.
The West Virginia v. EPA ruling marks the most consequential development in environmental law since Attorney General Morrisey won a historic and unprecedented stay of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan at the Supreme Court in February 2016.
“We’re not by all means done. My office will continue to fight for the rights of West Virginians when those in Washington try to go too far in asserting broad powers without the people’s support,” Attorney General Morrisey said.
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