Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 32.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Second, I agree that the interpretation adopted by peti-
tioner  and  JUSTICE  ALITO  reads  the  word  “any”  unnatu-
rally, ante, at 11, although the majority appears to deploy 
that argument itself in another part of the opinion, ante, at 
14.  Petitioner’s  and  JUSTICE  ALITO’s  interpretation  also 
gives insufficient weight to the meaning of “addition,” see 
supra, at 2. 

Third, I agree that the EPA’s interpretation is not enti-
tled to deference for at least two reasons: No party requests 
it, and the EPA’s reading is not the best one.  Ante, at 12– 
13.  I add only that deference under Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. 
Natural  Resources  Defense  Council,  Inc.,  467  U. S.  837 
(1984), likely conflicts with the Vesting Clauses of the Con-
stitution.  See Baldwin v. United States, 589 U. S. ___, ___– 
___ (2020) (THOMAS, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari) 
(slip op., at 2–8); Michigan v. EPA, 576 U. S. 743, 761–764 
(2015) (THOMAS, J., concurring); see also Perez v. Mortgage 
Bankers  Assn.,  575  U. S.  92,  115–126  (2015) (THOMAS, J., 
concurring in judgment). 

Finally, I agree with the Court’s implicit conclusion that 
Rapanos v. United States, 547 U. S. 715 (2006), does not re-
solve this case.  That plurality opinion, which I joined, ob-
served that lower courts have required a permit when pol-
lutants pass through a chain of point sources.  Id., at 743– 
744.  But we expressly said in Rapanos that “we [did] not 
decide this issue.”  Id., at 743.  We are not bound by dictum
in a plurality opinion or by the lower court opinions it cited. 

III 
The best reading of the statute is that a “discharge” is the
release of pollutants directly from a point source to naviga-
ble waters.  The application of this interpretation to the un-
disputed  facts  of  this  case  makes  a  remand  unnecessary.
Petitioner operates a wastewater treatment facility and in-
jects  treated  wastewater  into  four  underground  injection
control wells.  All parties agree that the wastewater enters