waters
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 547 U.S. 715 - Rapanos v. United States · 2006Most cited · 610 citing opinions
water `[a]s found in streams and bodies forming geographical features such as oceans, rivers, [and] lakes,'" "ante," at 732 (quoting Webster's Second 2882)the dissent is correct to observe that an intermittent flow can constitute a stream, in the sense of "`[a] current or course of water or other fluid, flowing on the earth,'" "ante," at 733, n. 6 (quoting Webster's Second 2493), while it is flowing.
How often courts cite the cases defining “waters”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “waters” — 629 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 2006–2023
only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water 'forming geographic[al] features' that are described in ordinary parlance as 'streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes.' " Rapanos, 547 U. S., at 739 (plurality opinion).