Left-wing activist judges just got smacked back into their proper places after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on Thursday that’s a huge victory for the Trump administration. It’s about time these people get sent a reminder that there’s a limit to their authority.
The decision handed down by SCOTUS slaps a limit on environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects. The case in question will have a huge impact on President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
“NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects based on the environmental effects of other projects separate from the project at hand,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh stated in the court’s opinion.
“Courts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness,” the opinion explained.
Trending Politics News is reporting, “Kavanaugh further stated that agencies should not be expected to review the environmental impact of any project outside the one they are currently working on. This applies to”even if” possible environmental impacts ‘might extend outside the geographical territory of the project or materialize later in time.'”
“The fact that the project might foreseeably lead to the construction or increased use of a separate project does not mean the agency must consider that separate project’s environmental effects,” the court’s ruling read.
The decision on Thursday was an incredibly rare 8-0 with Justice Neil Gorsuch abstaining from the case. I mean, you can barely get three people together in one room to agree on the color of excrement, let alone a court ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett all got on board with Kavanaugh’s opinion.
Justice Sonia Sotomayer also wrote an opinion which concurred with Kavanaugh’s. She was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The ruling comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that environmental regulations are hampering the administration’s energy agenda, which includes expansions in offshore drilling, fracking and enhanced refinery capabilities. The U.S. Department of Justice recently filed lawsuits against four states, all of which have Democrat governors, over climate change directives the DOJ claims conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump’s energy policies.
Lawsuits were first filed against Hawaii and Michigan over their planned legal action against fossil fuel companies for what they have described as adverse environmental effects. Additional legal action was taken against New York and Vermont over their respective climate superfund laws, which would require fossil fuel companies to pay into state-based funds based on previous greenhouse gas emissions.
This ruling is a breath of fresh air. Federal judges have been throwing every kind of block in the road possible in order to interfere with the implementation of the president’s agenda. And that means they are opposing you, me, and every American citizen who voted for a president who would put this country first. Judges aren’t supposed to be activists.
Less than a day before the environmental ruling was delivered, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled against President Trump, claiming he has no constitutional authority to issue tariffs under the Emergency Powers Act.
“Universal injunctions are an unconstitutional abuse of judicial power,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said during an interview with Fox News earlier this month.
“Just this past week, a D.C. district judge issued a universal injunction blocking the president’s executive order requiring voter ID or proof-of-citizenship prior to voting in national election,” he added. “Judges are not policymakers.”
“The Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could have major ramifications on the ability of federal judges to issue injunctions. A decision is expected within the next several weeks,” TPN concluded.
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