The US Supreme Court spent most of the last few weeks remaking America. But its latest decision will affect the rest of the world.
The court's conservative majority -- which previously stripped a woman's
constitutional right to an abortion and loosened gun laws -- on Thursday limited the government's capacity to regulate carbon emissions, in a major blow to the fight against climate change. The ruling, branded a disaster by environmental groups, comes as wildfires, flooding, strengthening storms and parching droughts reveal the catastrophic effects of global warming.
And it underscores yet again that in its narrow reading of a Constitution written in the 18th century, the Supreme Court majority built by ex-President Donald Trump has no plans to adapt its jurisprudence to modern crises. The justices, in a 6-3 opinion on partisan lines, ruled that US law did not permit the government's Environmental Protection Agency to limit greenhouse gases.
"Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible 'solution to the crisis of the day,'" Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion. "But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme." The decision does not just curb the Biden administration's capacity to fight global warming; it calls into question the government's ability to regulate anything — unless Congress has specifically authorized the details of how to do it.
In the big picture, in its recent decisions, the high court is taking away the power of the executive branch and handing it to legislators in Washington and in the states. This sounds quite proper in a democracy. Yet the justices (as well as the conservative activists bringing cases) know that with Congress polarized and bound by rules like the Senate filibuster, it will never act on many major questions. That means the urgent business of regulating on issues like carbon emissions will never get done.
Practically, Thursday's decision makes it much harder for Biden to meet his goals of halving greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and creating a net zero emissions economy by 2050. That's why his White House called it "devastating."
Biden's massive $500 billion climate plan is stuck in Congress and is unlikely to pass in its full form, if at all. Now his power to act alone has been sharply reduced. This will make it much harder for the US to convince other countries to curb their emissions -- which means more bad news for the planet.
