U.S. Supreme Court denies hearing lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline

WASHINGTON – The United State Supreme Court will not hear a case filed by landowners against the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The initial petition to the Supreme Court by the legal team for the petitioners in the case Orus Ashby Berkley, et al. v. FERC, et al., was filed Oct. 23, 2018.

The case was filed with the court after a previous ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

After a variety of orders in the following months, the court officially announced it denied the petition Tuesday.

The court's denial doesn't mean it necessarily agrees with the decision of the lower court, but rather the court will not address this particular issue at this particular time. 

Gentry Locke, the firm representing the petitioners in this case, released this statement Tuesday:

"While Gentry Locke had hoped for a different result, we respect the Court’s decision. Although the Landowners never had the chance to argue the underlying merits of their non-delegation and eminent domain arguments in court, we anticipate that these issues will be raised again one day by other Americans in similar situations, and we look forward to that day."