Judges claw at Trump’s academic purge at EPA

courthousenews.com ^ | 12/3/19 | THOMAS F. HARRISON

[cotton1706]

BOSTON (CN) – Tensions ran high at First Circuit arguments Tuesday where several judges raised their voices in frustration with the government’s attempts to defend an order that purged scores of academic and nonprofit scientists from the agency’s advisory committees.

“You’d like to think that the EPA gave some thought to the effects of its actions, but this was just a fiat,” complained U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta Jr., an Obama appointee. Kayatta described the agency’s attitude as: “well, we’re the EPA, and you’re not.”

But the judges took issue as well with the lack of specificity in the case record about the practical effects of the order, and neither side could answer a number of specific questions.

“How can we determine if the EPA has put a thumb on the scale, or has put a truck on the scale?” Kenyatta asked. “We need to know this.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch chimed in: “It’s not at all helpful to us if you can’t tell us” how many scientists have been purged and what the effect has been.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued the order in 2017, saying scientists who received an EPA grant could no longer serve on advisory committees because the grant amounted to a conflict of interest. The EPA then removed a large number of scientists who work for universities and nonprofit organizations and replaced them with scientists at companies that the EPA regulates.

Elizabeth Anne Sheppard, a researcher at the University of Washington, gave up an EPA grant so she could remain on a committee. She joined the Union of Concerned Scientists in mounting a court challenge to the rule change. By their count, some 8,000 scientists received EPA grants and are now ineligible to serve as EPA advisers.

[shotgun]

Don’t forget tall of the environmental legal firms that get paid to sue the US. The feds use them to help write regulations and then allow them to sue based upon the regs they helped write.

Talk about insane...

[kingu]

RIP separation of powers.. Now every member of congress and every judge has equal power to the executive. No decision is above being second guessed (and rolled back at whatever whim the two other branches randomly decide.)

Only one huge problem with this... An executive who isn’t playing ball, who keeps fighting back. Guess it’s time to impeach him... WHOOPS. Must be more Russian interference...

(By the way, who’s paying off Hunter Biden right now? I’m curious as to which foreign powers are betting on Joe Biden getting further than Bernie..)

[SunkenCiv]

...complained U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta Jr., an Obama appointee.

Fake judge, unfit for the bench.

[Colt1851Navy]

Shakespeare said something concerning lawyers, lots of judges need the same treatment.

[vikingd00d]

>>RIP separation of powers.. Now every member of congress and every judge has equal power to the executive. No decision is above being second guessed (and rolled back at whatever whim the two other branches randomly decide.)

That’s only true while a Republican is president.. A Democrat president would of course be omnipotent in a “stroke of the pen, law of the land” kind of way.