Just as parts of the world are becoming uninhabitable and nearly half the U.S. is under an extreme heat advisory, extremists on the Supreme Court have decided they know more about climate change than scientists and meteorologists.
Granting the wishes of private industry, particularly the fossil-fuel industry, the Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo effectively gutted the administrative state, overturning the Chevron doctrine that had guided federal agencies and federal law for four decades. Under Chevron, courts deferred to a federal government agency’s professional expertise in interpreting ambiguities in federal legislation. Those agency interpretations were developed over years and relied on the professional expertise of scientists, doctors and engineers. So long as agencies’ expert interpretation made sense, comported with Congress’ intentions, and was reasonable, courts accepted it.
Trump supporters and organizations like the Heritage Foundation pushing Trump’s Project 2025 have obsessed over Chevron and sought to dismantle the “deep state” for years. Their lobbying efforts and massive dark money campaigns focused on judicial appointments of zealot judges committed to weakening the federal government, largely to promote Christian Nationalism and protect corporate profits threatened by federal regulations.
The dangerous gutting of Chevron
In the recent Loper decision, Justice Roberts wrote outrageously that federal agencies “have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.” Loper overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine by ruling that judges should substitute their own opinions for scientific expertise in interpreting federal statutes.
The absurdity of letting self-impressed men like Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch substitute their personal, lay opinions for those of trained scientists, engineers and experts is worse than partisan — it’s suicidal. Justice Thomas recently shot down the AFT’s expert opinion that bump stocks keep firing the trigger like a machine gun, while Justice Gorsuch repeatedly confused an air pollutant with laughing gas when gutting EPA protections for the environment.
The prospect of Trump-appointed judges deciding for themselves how many pounds of toxic emissions our forests, farms and lungs can handle is terrifying.
SCOTUS has now given all right-wing fanatics in black robes the green light to deploy junk science, consult their navels, or review the Old Testament to arrive at their preferred conclusion in climate and other science-dependent cases.
Conflicted justices should recuse from all climate cases
Most troubling, in terms of whether the human race will survive its biggest threat, is that zealots on the current Supreme Court have solid ties to the fossil fuel industry.
As Politico reported, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s father was a “highly active and respected member of the American Petroleum Institute for more than two decades,” raising concerns about Barrett’s participation in climate cases. During her confirmation hearing, she testified, “I don’t think that my views on global warming or climate change are relevant to the job I would do as a judge… I’m not really in a position to offer any kind of informed opinion.” Her decision in Loper says otherwise.
Meanwhile, Justice Alito’s family leases more than 100 acres of land for oil and gas development, yet he failed to recuse from the case hobbling the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions. It has also become known that Justice Thomas, who has accepted over $4 million in “gifts” from conservative donors, has been in fossil fuel investor Harlan Crow’s pocket for years.
Aside from obvious personal conflicts presented for Coney-Barrett, Alito, and Thomas due to their ties to fossil fuel wealth, all six conservative justices belong to the Federalist Society, and have ties to the Heritage Foundation. Both organizations are backed by fossil fuel money, in particular, Koch money.
The Heritage Foundation is a network of conservative organizations financed by the Koch brothers largely to promote climate change denial, and in particular to lobby against the government’s climate change efforts. Justice Thomas has listed the Heritage Foundation on his disclosure forms, and the Heritage Foundation vetted lists of judges and current conservative justices for Trump appointments.
Drill baby, drill
It’s a safe bet that any politician who calls climate change a hoax is profiting from it.
Trump’s Project 2025 should be required reading for every American who cares about climate change. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and chief antagonist against the “deep state” destroyed in Loper, has acknowledged the potential for violence in pursuing Project 2025’s extremist, authoritarian objectives, including the protection of fossil fuels.
Just as the first Civil War was fought to protect slavery wealth, the MAGA confederacy is protecting fossil fuel wealth with the Supreme Court’s help, even though the base doesn’t understand the connection. Trump voters won’t realize they have done the bidding of the industry destroying their homes until it is too late.
Sabrina Haake is a federal trial lawyer. She writes the Substack newsletter The Haake Take.