First, for a good take on Michigan’s lawsuit against Illinois over the invasive Asian carp, check out yesterday’s Washington Post article.
And thanks to NWF’s senior attorney Neil Kagan, we’ve got some more info on the legal processes and timelines for the carp lawsuit:
- Ohio filed a motion on December 23 in support of Michigan’s request to modify the Supreme Court consent decree that governs the Chicago diversion in order to stop Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan.
- Illinois’s response to Michigan’s filings is due December 31.
- The Supreme Court is meeting in a regularly scheduled “conference” on January 8, and it will take up Michigan’s lawsuit then. Nobody knows what issues it will decide then, much less how it will decide them.
So despite the Supreme Court’s reputation for slow and deliberate action, at least for now this case is moving at warp speed. And that’s essential, because the Asian carp won’t wait.
