9th Circuit Court Surprise

[zyqwert]

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a reputation as the most liberal federal appeals court and is regularly overturned. Environmental regulation is cited by libertarians as an attack on property rights from the left. So I was surprised by this ruling reported in today's San Jose Mercury News. The court said the Clean Water Act does not apply to some salt ponds around San Francisco Bay because they are not "navigable waters" (the constititional justification for the federal law).

I have used a recreation trail that goes through this land and I can say these waters are navigable only by seagulls. Somehow the court was able to recognize this obvious fact, even though it meant reducing the power of the federal government.

By undoing the government taking, this is quite a windfall for the Cargill corporation:

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In the government sale, an appraisal said Cargill's ponds were worth about $20,000 an acre because they couldn't be filled and developed under the Clean Water Act. But if its remaining lands can be developed, they could be worth $1 million an acre or more.

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Being a fan of property rights and a limited federal government, I consider this an excellent result. I imagine environmentalists hate this result since it reduces the land subject to the Clean Water Act.

links:
The Mercury News article
A 2005 libertarian critique of the Clean Water Act