Work spills over into one more day
Will release EPA, asylum seekers remaining in Mexico decisions
The Supreme Court has added yet another unscheduled opinion day, the fourth such addition, with two important cases left on their docket.
After deciding Wednesday that Oklahoma has legal jurisdiction over nonnatives in criminal cases on tribal land and that Texas erred in not rehiring a state trooper after he had been called to active duty military service, the court closed business for the day.
West Virginia v. EPA and Biden v. Texas remain to be decided. The court says both decisions will be released Thursday.
The former case could have much wider ranging implications than just over the environment.
The suit against the Environmental Protection Agency challenges the agency’s powers to regulate emissions standards, which were granted to it under an Obama-era rule.
That rule was overturned by a Trump-era rule, which was subsequently overturned by the D.C. district court for not actually accomplishing any of the aims it purported.
West Virginia’s attorney general, and those from nearly two dozen other states, sued. They argued the Obama-era policy allowed the EPA to “set standards on a regional or even national level, forcing dramatic changes in how and where electricity is produced, as well as transforming any other sector of the economy where stationary sources emit greenhouse gasses.”
Lawyers arguing against the EPA’s rules have gone further than just the case at question, which deals with power plant emissions in that state, and asked the court to consider more broadly if the EPA, and a whole host of post-New Deal agencies, has the ability to create laws.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed inclined to accept the proposition, explaining the court’s so-called ‘major questions’ doctrine to government lawyers during oral arguments.
If the court applies that standard here, it could affect any number of federal agencies — like OSHA, the National Labor Relations Board or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — which also make legally enforceable rules governing American life.
The other case left to decide deals with a 2018 Department of Homeland Security policy that forces asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while they await the disposition of their asylum claims.
When President Biden took office he tried to end the policy and return to the previous rules of allowing asylum speakers to remain in the U.S.
Texas and Missouri sued, saying Biden’s administration ended the policy improperly and that it didn’t have the authority to do so in the first place. A court agreed, but Biden sued back. His administration asked the Supreme Court to confirm he has the authority to order the policy now that Trump is gone.