The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on January 12 in a case in which a gold mining company, Coeur Alaska, wants the right to dump mining wastewater into Lower Slate Lake, near Juneau, killing all the fish and other aquatic life. Coeur was represented by Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Supreme Court case that gave Bush the presidency, and by the U.S. government in the person of Solicitor General Gregory Garre. Olson tried to define the wastewater discharge as “fill” and argued that the destruction of aquatic life might be temporary. Justice David Souter called it “Orwellian” to state that “rigorous environmental standards” were being followed “when you are destroying the entire living (bodies) of this lake.” Chief Justice John Roberts shrugged off the environmental concerns, noting that the fish were not endangered species. “There are millions of them somewhere else, right?” he asked.