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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wades into questioning about murky wetlands dispute as Supreme Court opens new term

The Supreme Court opened its nine-month term Monday by hearing a conservative challenge to the federal government’s authority to regulate wetlands under a landmark environmental protection law, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asking multiple questions on her first day on the bench Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, was quick off the mark, asking a series of questions early on in the nearly two hours of arguments indicating sympathy for maintaining expansive federal authority over wetlands. The conservative majority seemed more skeptical, although there appeared to be no consensus about how to draw a line that would limit federal jurisdiction over sometimes hard-to-define patches of wetland. […]