They'll deny it but West Virginia v. EPA was a pure case of 'conservative judicial activism'
My understanding of this case is that this wasn't determining the constitutionality of a rule that never went into effect and was scrapped years ago, but saying if this rule falls within the authority that the EPA was given by Congress.
Congress gives most, if not all, agencies explicit and clear powers of rule-making and enforcement. However, Congress also gives authority some really broad, vague, and undefined authority. Sometimes, it's hard to know with preciseness and certainty if a rule falls under that vague and broad scope. For example, Congress has full power to write a broad and vague law like "the EPA has the power to ensure our nation's water and air are free of pollutants, contaminants, and toxins." Agencies make rules under broad and vague authority granted by Congress all the time. That is what the EPA did here, use its broad authority to make a rule.
So... how does the Court determine if this rule falls under the EPA's scope of this disgustingly broad law that Congress wrote? Does it get it's answer from the statute? Sure, but it's unclear and doesn't help much to answer this question.
Does the Court defer to Congress on defining this broad scope of authority? FUCK NO! Of course not!
Instead, the Court creates it's own scope of power, and that is what the Court did in this case.
The Court just limited the scope from the broad scope the EPA was given by Congress to the Court's limited scope that it determined on its own, which I believe some call this "judicial activism."
After all of this my question is: WHERE THE FUCK IS CONGRESS TO TELL THE SUPREME COURT THEY GOT THIS DECISION WRONG???
Where is Congress to write and pass new law saying #SCOTUSFuckedUp, and we're correcting it? Where is Congress to write new law saying "no no Supreme Court. We did intend to give the EPA this authority and they do indeed have this authority"?
Oh wait, I remember now... Republicans stacked the Court with their batshit crazy judges and made sure that Congress was broken enough that it couldn't respond as a reasonably healthy Congress should.
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…[and anti-choice red state] vs FDA that will challenge the FDA’s authority to approve termination drugs nationally. That too will be a states rights issue.
