The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority in several narrow but critical decisions gave the Trump administration wide latitude on its efforts to pare back environmental and climate protections.
A year after the high court limited deference to agency decision-making, the court this term issued key rulings clarifying or even constraining the role of lower court judges to evaluate agency actions. The Supreme Court’s emergency, or “shadow,” docket also emerged as a high-profile player in justices’ decision-making process.
“It looks to me like this court really believes in executive power and is somehow thinking that the separation of powers is out of whack,” said Pat Parenteau, professor emeritus at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. “They don’t trust agencies, they’re critical of Congress, but they seem to be bent on reinforcing the power of the presidency.”
For the first time in about two decades, the Supreme Court ruled on the National Environmental Policy Act, affirming that agencies have discretion over the level of detail in their analyses and that the environmental law does not require them to consider far-reaching environmental effects of projects.
