Thread by @Laurie_Garrett

In 4 earth-shattering decisions this term, #SCOTUS gutted authority from all federal regulatory agencies. These are very radical decisions – essentially overturning all the sentiments of our nation’s founders debated in The Federalist Papers.
In this 🧵I'll lay it out.

2/Today, w/Corner Post v Federal Reserve #SCOTUS decided that anybody can sue a fedl agcy, over anything, w/no statute of limitations.
Dissenting, Justice Jackson: “The majority throws caution to the wind & engages in...misguided reasoning about statutory limitations periods..."
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supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…

3/Jackson: "The far-reaching results of the Court’s ruling in this case are staggering.”
“In one fell swoop, the Court has effectively eliminated any limitations period for APA lawsuits....This means that, from this day forward, administrative agencies can be sued in perpetuity over every final decision they make."
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4/In SEC v Jarkesy last week #SCOTUS ruled a fedl agcy (SEC) can't decide whether regulations have been violated (here, equities fraud) – that must be adjudicated in the courts.
JUSTICE GORSUCH: “The Court decides a single issue: Whether the Securities & Exchange Commission’s use of in-house hearings to seek civil penalties violates the 7th Amendment right to a jury trial. It does.”
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5/ Dissenting, Justice Sotomayor bemoans, "This Court’s repeated failure to appreciate that its decisions can threaten the separation of powers...The majority today upends longstanding precedent & the estab'ed practice of its coequal partners in our tripartite system of Government. Because the Court fails to act as a neutral umpire when it rewrites established rules in the manner it does today, I respectfully dissent.”
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6/The power of fedl regulators was further diminished by the Court’s Ohio v EPA decision, destroying the agency’s ability to enforce “good neighbor” policies that control air pollution blowing from a state that generates the ill wind, into a cleaner state. By gutting that @EPA power, every fedl agcy is hamstrung in trying to regulate one state’s stances on public safety versus another’s.
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supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…

7/Justice Barrett dissents: “Given the number of companies included & the timelines for review, the Court’s injunction leaves large swaths of upwind States free to keep contributing significantly to their downwind neighbors’ ozone problems for the next several years...”
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8/The real shocker, with all-of-govt impact, is reversal of the 40-year-old doctrine established in “Chevron,” as the case is called --- a landmark suit in which @NRDC sought to push the @EPA (during Reagan years) to enforce pollution standards (in this case, against @Chevron ) in a timely matter, based on granting fedl agcy experts power to interpret law in compelling antipollution actions.
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9/ For decades, “Chevron” has been the basis for how our Executive Branch operates. Agencies from USDA & EPA to FDA & SEC routinely draw from bodies of regulatory law to interpret which citizen or corporate actions violate standards.
But in Loper Bright v Sec. of Commerce Raimondo #SCOTUS tossed out “Chevron."
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10/ #SCOTUS : “The Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, & courts may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous; Chevron is overruled.”

MOREsupremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…

11/ And in the Snyder v U.S. case #SCOTUS ruled that companies, organizations & individuals can give “gifts” to fedl officials, so long as the gift is delivered after the relevant federal govt employee has carried out the action.

MOREsupremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf…

12/ So, a hypothetical Big Oil lobbyist, might leave packets of info about college admissions on the desk of an @EPA official, knowing he has 4 kids coming of college age – a subtle hint that the company is willing to help out on tuition costs. That would be legal, so long as no actual payments to cover tuitions for those kids transpired until after the agcy ruled that Big Oil’s pollution was okay.
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13/ In her dissent, Justice Jackson: “it seems that the majority itself harbors the belief it repeatedly ascribes to Congress: that regulation of gratuities is better left to state, local, and tribal governments, rather than the Federal Government.”
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14/ Taken together, these decisions give the Judiciary far more power over very aspect of governance – especially regulation. And do so, by eroding both the Executive Branch’s powers, & those of Congress.
In the case of Congress...
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15/...#SCOTUS says that legislators must have sufficient time, foresight & grasp of all issues political leaders they address, so that they can stipulate every conceivable aspect of interpretation of laws passed by the House & Senate & nothing is left for later interpretation.

16/ Failing to do so, as of these SCOTUS rulings, means judges will decide. Or the States. But not agency experts.
In real world cases, this means that politically-appointed judges with zero training in science would decide how @FDA regulates carcinogns; how USDA...
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17/...decides what are safe practices for pesticides & antibiotics w/livestock; what safety standards FAA demands; whether NOAA can attribute a CAT5 hurricane to climate change; etc.
Across the US govt panels of technical expertise have made such decisions.
But not anymore.
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18/ The combined impact of these & other Roberts Court rulings is to make it possible for large corporations, employing armies of lawyers, to block, bribe or stall regulatory action executed by the Executive Branch.
Hello, pollution, unsafe drugs, fraud, stock manipulation...
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19/If #DonaldTrump is elected, #SCOTUS has basically rolled out a red carpet. The fedl govt is weakened, some forms of bribery are ok, #Trump is immune from whatever constitutes “official actions”, & he can fulfill promises to “Drill, baby, drill!” w/out any pesky environmental regulators getting in his way.
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20/The #January6th #insurrection may have failed, but the Judiciary Revolution, pushed for decades by Mitch McConnell, has won. Our Constitution, Bill of Rights & more than 200 yrs of legal precedents are getting overturned by 6 people, acting as a black-robed coup d’etat. As surely as any insurrection, they are overturning the State, itself.