The Supreme Court heard a bizarre case Monday that dealt with the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. A coalition of red states and coal companies are gesturing towards a rule that is no longer on the books — Obama’s Clean Power Plan — as a way to bring before the conservative court questions of how the EPA can act on climate.
Sweet bleeding Jesus. These rube gops are utterly determined to destroy the United States of America.
A bigger set of traitors I’ve yet to see.
Who paid off Rapey McBeerfaces’ debts? That’s where I’d start the dark money investigation. and then move on to Kennedy and his son.
Also, can any lawyer ELI5 how this isn’t moot as the rule was withdrawn? It seems ludicrous on the face of it that this is even before SCROTUS
It would be simpler for Republicans to introduce a bill repealing the last 200 years of American history.
The world is on fire. The Supreme Court is bought off. How do like your chances, Mr. & Mrs. America?
Far Too Much of Mr. & Mrs. America: “What’s on Netflix tonight?”
They’re too dumb and uniformed to have any grasp of the enormity of immiseration that lies in front of us. Like the passengers dancing on the Titanic before a calamity that would never happen struck. Or, like people, who when warned about an oncoming Tsunami, rushed out to the sea front to watch it happen and were swept away in the deluge.
Seems like an appropriate time to post this reminder:
It’s true: millions in dark money has been spent to tilt courts right
Hard to believe this case even came before the court much less that any Justice would vote in favor. Actually it’s hard to believe we are even still having this argument at all.
Corporate cash is investing in a minefield future that will eliminate any regulation. Money isn’t speech it’s currency and they bought what they wanted. If our employees are selling influence in our government there should be a sales tax.
So the SC is preparing to say that the Executive has no right to do it, only Congress can? And of course, Congress can’t since it’s been rigged red in the Senate with slightly less-dark money (Sinemanchin). And even if Congress could, and somehow did, the SC would overrule that too, because… freedom. Hey, it turns out regulations–also known as “laws”–are illegal! How do so many a judge become a juris-nihilist? Oh that’s right, $.
What’s the right number of judges for the Supreme Court? I say 17. The Robert’s court should always be referred to as “the Republican activist Supreme Court”.
Yes, the sound you hear is the passenger-side wheels of the SCOTUS van on the shoulder rumble-strips, as the Chief Justice seeks an exit ramp. We can imagine a short “per curiam” decision disposing of this case.
What is potentially a broader threat to executive agency authority is the pending Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation case, argued last November and likely to be decided this term, in which the scope, and perhaps viability, of the “Chevron” doctrine, generally having to do with the deference courts are to give executive agencies’ rules promulgated on the authority Congress gave them, is before the Court (although the case could be disposed of on other grounds). Note that the late Justice Scalia once recognized the doctrine, but later moved away from it and, of course, isn’t around to craft distinctions or exceptions.
A ruling that undermines the legislative apparatus Congress has set up over decades for agency regulation would be bad enough, as it would ignore the clear intent of Congress to allow agencies to develop and implement regulations. Doing that using a moot case as a vehicle is the definition of creating law from the bench out of thin air…there is no case here, there is a hypothetical where Congress might do some future legislation, and the courts are not supposed to intervene on hypothetical cases but on real laws. If they actually go down this road, they are basically creating a judicial dictatorship, where only the laws that they want are allowed, and they will create the laws they want in whatever way they can.
I’m sure Roberts understands the huge judicial overreach here, the question is if he can get one of the other conservatives to see that and pull back from a decision that will be among the worst in history, simply because it’s such a naked power grab. Even the absolute worst cases in SC history were based on actual cases and law, there’s nothing like this, and this should have been punted long before as a moot case and never been argued.
“But this is an extremist Supreme Court, so I’m very worried about the outcome.”
The Court utterly lacks legitimacy to me. I also think the institutional damage is more or less permanent absent major reform. Moscow Mitch destroyed it.
I think the time is drawing nearer when the Biden Administration simply refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of a SCOTUS ruling. Bad precedent, I know, but what’s the point of letting them dismantle our government? After that, it will be too late to fight back.
Fuck. Hard not to think we are proper fucked. Thanks Roberts for your tireless devotion to stripping the poor, brown, or less well heeled of power or agency.
Don’t worry, the Court will reverse its opposition to the regulatory state next time a Republican becomes president.
Don’t give them any ideas!
FIFY