Opinion Summary: Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County | Date Decided: 5/29/25 | Case No. 23–975

Link to Docket: Here.

Question Presented: Whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority.

Holding: The D.C. Circuit failed to afford the Board the substantial judicial deference required in NEPA cases and incorrectly interpreted NEPA to require the Board to consider the environmental effects of upstream and downstream projects that are separate in time or place from the Uinta Basin Railway.

Result: Reversed and remanded.

Voting Breakdown: 8-0. Justice Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito and Barrett joined. Justice Sotomayor filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Justices Kagan and Jackson joined. Justice Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Link to Opinion: Here.

Oral Advocates:

• For Petitioner: Paul D. Clement, Alexandria, Va.
• For federal respondents supporting petitioners: Edwin S. Kneedler, Deputy Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.
• For respondents Eagle County, et al.: William M. Jay, Washington, D.C.

Apple Podcast Link to Oral Argument: Here.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:02:10] Question Presented

[00:03:04] Voting Breakdown

[00:03:32] Justice Kavanaugh's Majority Opinion

[00:09:56] Justice Sotomayor's Concurring Opinion

[00:21:22] Case Implications