Well, it has not been a quiet week at the Supreme Court. Narrowing the scope of the obstruction statute, the Court held that obstructing, influences, or impeding any official proceeding of Congress only refers to the destruction of papers. Really? The January 6 riot at the Capitol wasn’t an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding? Not sure what else you would call it.
And then there’s the temporary halt on the EPA’s ability to issue regulations to limit pollution, so industry from one state cannot pollute the air of another state, meaning that states with weak air pollution rules can choke the rest of us. Of course, the major air pollution in D.C. is the thickness of the Court’s heads. They, of course, so insulated, will not choke to death on the foul air they now create.
The Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce cases will have far reaching impact, limiting the ability of federal agencies to even write regulations based on federal law. Who else should write them? Polluters who don’t care who dies as long as they profit? Not to mention other areas, such as food safety and drinking water. We’d better remember this in November.
Prayer for the Day
Where are you, Lord, when we need your guidance,
Not to mention your strength of spirit in our land?
Where are you, Lord, when money rules how we live,
Rather than the interests of the people?
Give us strength, O Lord, so we take on the powers,
Uncaring about the real needs or our people.
In the name of the One who is our strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
It [Chevron] has been applied in thousands of judicial decisions. It has become part of the warp and woof of modern government, supporting regulatory efforts of all kinds — to name a few, keeping air and water clean, food and drugs safe, and financial markets honest.
Justice Ellen Kagan, dissent
If Americans are worried about their drinking water, their health, their retirement account, discrimination on the job, if they fly on a plane, drive a car, if they go outside and breathe the air — all of these day-to-day activities are run through a massive universe of federal agency regulations.
Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown Law School