Justice Sonia Sotomayor (June 17, 2015) Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.

Business groups, 29 states, agricultural organizations and other industries scored a big victory Monday in their long-running challenges to the so-called “Waters of the United States” rule.

The justices in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense unanimously held that challenges to the Obama-era rule must be filed in federal district courts and not in federal appellate courts.

The 2015 Clean Water rule has been called one of the most consequential regulations ever promulgated under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already announced it plans to repeal the rule and return to the pre-2015 definition of waters of the United States.