Thread by @arapaho415

@clearing_fog @davetroy 🧵WV v EPA
"in an unusually muscular assertion of power, [SCOTUS] agreed to review the now-revoked plan"
"the court's 6-justice conservative supermajority has been itching to limit the power of regulatory agencies, & potentially even the power of Congress"
npr.org/2022/02/28/108…

@clearing_fog @davetroy 2/ NPR Feb 28, 2022⤴️:
"In recent cases, the conservative court majority has begun to outline something it calls the 'major questions doctrine,' which could hamstring the authority of all agencies, from the EPA to the SEC to Federal Reserve Board." (more)
ballotpedia.org/West_Virginia_…

@clearing_fog @davetroy 3/ "[T]he major questions doctrine requires Congress to specifically authorize new policies or directions, even when the language of a statute gives an agency broad power."
Which means regulatory agencies would be merely paper-pushers, needing Congress to enact rules/policies.

@clearing_fog @davetroy 4/ "But the major questions doctrine is not the only new twist that some of the court's conservatives have advocated. Another is something called the non-delegation doctrine. As some conservatives see things, Congress is quite limited...

@clearing_fog @davetroy 5/ ...in how much regulatory power it can give to agencies.
Jonathan Brightbill, an environmental lawyer who previously represented the Trump administration in the case, summarizes the outer edges of the nondelegation argument—namely that Congress cannot delegate...

@clearing_fog @davetroy 6/ ...unlimited power to executive agencies, no matter what the circumstances are. After all, he points out, 'ours is a constitutional system,' and the Constitution places legislative power in hands of representatives in Congress—not unelected executive agencies. (con't)

@clearing_fog @davetroy 7/ ...That point was initially made by Justice 👉Clarence Thomas in a 2001 case👈, an EPA case no less. But no other justice joined his opinion. Even Justice 👉Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon, rejected the non-delegation argument👈. (con't) @gregolear

@clearing_fog @davetroy @gregolear 8/ ...Scalia's majority opinion greenlit delegation of broad regulatory authority as long as Congress guides the agency with an 'intelligible principle.'
But in 2019, Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, sought to resuscitate Thomas's non-delegation argument...

@clearing_fog @davetroy @gregolear 9/ ...in an opinion 👉joined by Chief Justice John Roberts👈. They argued that the Founders rejected the idea that Congress could delegate its powers."
"Taken to the extreme, the major questions and non-delegation doctrines could debilitate the federal agencies. (con't)

@clearing_fog @davetroy @gregolear 10/ ...For example, the Federal Reserve's power to set interest rates is certainly a power of 'vast political and economic significance.'"
"Must Congress act every three months to review interest rates?" (more...)

@clearing_fog @davetroy @gregolear 11/ Anti-democratic forces have successfully executed a long-term coup on US judiciary system.
It began in 2010 w/disastrous #CitizensUnited decision.
Unless filibuster is ended, SCOTUS may effectively paralyze our federal govt=>we'll no longer be the united states of America.🔚