Cooperative federalism varies widely from program to program, and depends on the relationship each statute prescribes. The Clean Water Act (CWA), while providing ample room for state participation, is heavily federal and leaves little about this relationship to chance. Nonetheless, the federal-state interplay goes on in as many venues as there are states and clean water programs, and the tensions that arise are inevitable.

The Obama Administration’s effort to divide and delist portions of the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population was rejected by the Montana federal district court. Congress intervened and enacted a rider on Interior’s 2011 appropriation bill that delisted the wolves in the Northern Rockies, except Wyoming, and precluded judicial review of the action. The Ninth Circuit upheld the congressional action, which should have been rejected under alternative legal theories. The Obama Administration has proposed delisting the gray wolf across most of the United States.