Posted on 06/30/2022 8:48:40 AM PDT by karpov
The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s powers to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, in a decision that could limit the authority of government agencies to address major policy questions without congressional approval.
Elaborating on earlier decisions, the high court said federal agencies need explicit authorization from Congress to decide issues of major economic and political significance, drawing on a principle known as the “major questions doctrine.”
In his decision for the 6-3 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said Congress never gave the EPA the authority to change the methods a power plant uses—regulations known as “generation shifting” requirements.
Chief Justice Roberts said that forcing a nationwide transition away from coal may be a “sensible” idea, but the EPA cannot do so without a clear authority from Congress.
“A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body,” the chief justice wrote, adding that the “EPA claimed to discover an unheralded power representing a transformative expansion of its regulatory authority in the vague language of a long-extant, but rarely used, statute.”
The chief justice’s opinion was joined by the court’s conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Justice Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion that was joined by Justice Alito.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissent on behalf of herself, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement becomes effective on Thursday.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the importance of the ruling cannot be overstated.
“Today, the Supreme Court has taken a major step to restore representative government and require legislators, not bureaucrats, to make the major policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans,” the group’s executive vice president, Derrick Morgan, said
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Back when this was a nation of laws, this ruling would have mattered. The Biden administration will just do as they please, and the GOP will fund raise off of that.
You are probably right.
Congress intentionally avoids (evades) doing the hard work of defining the details of how laws are to be implemented.
THE biggest case of this term. The entire regulatory bureaucracy of the federal government has been kneecapped. No longer may unelected bureaucrats impose their will upon the citizenry absent the law making authority of Congress!
MUCH bigger than the Dobbs case shit-canning Roe V Wade!
Been a rough week for my tree hugging, climate change worshiping, battery operated car owning, solar panels all over his roof Trump hating lunatic liberal neighbor.....after this he may take the gas pipe.
Lol. Like congress is going to be suddenly accountable to We The People. I am not sure why the SC is suddenly returning power to the states after decades of the opposite. Clod me suspicious.
Nah - the ruling really does matter, and it doesn't matter if Biden ignores it or not because the companies that were supposedly subject to the regulations will. And there's nothing Biden can do about that because he can't force those companies to pay fines.
Quick somebody get some water Joey fainted.
Important decision indeed and about time thins get in order.
Spot on!
Please tell me this includes the CDC which made our lives a living hell for over two years.
” ... it doesn’t matter if Biden ignores it or not because the companies that were supposedly subject to the regulations will. “
Maybe. Depends on the resources available to a target company. The Biden administration has lots of lawyers and unlimited funds. They also have access to other resources like the IRS.
I do t understand why SCOTUS didn’t say environmental protection is a state issue. I can’t think of anything in the Constitution that would give such authority to the federal government.
Does this mean L&I can’t mandate mask wearing at the work place? Or the jab?
What the administration will do is draft slightly different regulations and implement those. But they'll still have to go through the required notice and comment. Before they are affected, and even then would be struck down if they were essentially the same thing.
What the administration will do is draft slightly different regulations and implement those. But they'll still have to go through the required notice and comment. Before they are affected, and even then would be struck down if they were essentially the same thing.
I wonder if this will be applied to other Agencies as well.
Looking right at you FAA and BATFE...
The three libs always bow down to whatever the administrative state wants to do unless it involves a sex organ.
my thoughts as well....no unilaterally deciding something is contraband.....
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