June 19, 2006 1:57PM # Wetlands Ruling By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE As Jerry [notes](https://www.cato.org/?s=wetlands&submit=GO), today’s ruling is welcome news. Justice Scalia writes the main opinion and here are a few gems: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers exercises the discretion of an enlightened despot.” The Corps’ power to grant property owners a permit to do things on their own property relies upon “such factors as “economics,” “aesthetics,” “recreation,” and “in general, the needs and welfare of the people.” Scalia notes “the average applicant for an individual permit spends 788 days and $271,596 in completing the process.” Full Supreme Court ruling [here](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=04-1034). Cato brief in the case [here](https://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/Rapanos3.pdf). For more evidence of the despotism, go [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1081) or [here](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=17&pid=1441062). It should be noted that the Bush administration was [once again pushing a wildly expansive view of federal power](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6330) in this case. Fortunately, it lost this one. ##### Related Tags [Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).