As pointed out here Thursday, the Supreme Court’s hideous ruling on affirmative action admissions could undermine the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to bring environmental justice to predominantly Black communities disproportionately harmed by pollution. Today’s decision rejecting the administration’s forgiveness of student debt could mean the administration will also have a tough time getting its climate rules past the justices, several legal experts say.
The debt relief ruling in Biden v. Nebraska relied greatly but not exclusively on the “major questions doctrine” regarding the delegation of authority to federal agencies. In the past, deference has been given to agencies’ interpretation of broad laws passed by Congress. But the court has been stepping in to nix such interpretations if the issue at hand would be economically or politically significant.
The doctrine was brought to bear in last year’s 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency. The justices squelched the agency’s ability to impose “generation shifting” on power plants to move them from fossil fuels to alternatives such as wind and solar, arguing that Congress did not explicitly specify this authority. The justices seem determined to employ the doctrine whenever it suits them, often interpreting precedent in the most perverse, uncommonsensical manner.