WEST VIRGINIA v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (2024)

The applications for stay presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him referred to the Court are denied.

In my view, the applicants have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits as to at least some of their challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's rule. But because the applicants need not start compliance work until June 2025, they are unlikely to suffer irreparable harm before the Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit decides the merits. So this Court understandably denies the stay applications for now. Given that the D. C. Circuit is proceeding with dispatch, it should resolve the case in its current term. After the D. C. Circuit decides the case, the nonprevailing parties could, if circumstances warrant, seek appropriate relief in this Court pending this Court's disposition of any petition for certiorari, and if certiorari is granted, the ultimate disposition of the case.

Justice THOMAS would grant the applications for stay. Justice ALITO took no part in the consideration or decision of these applications.