News Briefs: Supreme Court Limits Agencies’ Regulatory Authority
In its Thursday ruling striking down Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions standards, the Supreme Court restricted the power of federal agencies across the government to issue regulations, legal experts say. The Supreme Court found that the EPA violated the “major-questions” doctrine, which according to SCOTUSblog is the legal doctrine “that if Congress wants to give an administrative agency the power to make ‘decisions of vast economic and political significance,’ it must say so clearly.” Attorney Katie Keith, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, wrote on Twitter that the ruling is “a blockbuster.…beyond inhibiting federal efforts to mitigate climate change, it will be used to tie the hands of federal agencies (esp. on health issues) for years to come.”
