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Posted: Oct 29, 2021 / 6:41 PM CDT
Updated: 10/29/2021 / 8:17 PM CDT
FILE – This October 4, 2018 file photo shows the US Supreme Court at sunset in Washington. Against the Biden government’s objections, the Supreme Court has agreed to investigate a climate change case that could limit the environmental protection agency’s power to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The court also said on October 29, 2021 it would hear a Republican-led immigration challenge. Both cases will not be negotiated until 2022 at the earliest. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) – Against the Biden administration’s objections, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a climate change case that could curtail the environmental protection agency’s power to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The court also said it would hear a Republican-led immigration challenge.
The cases will not be heard until 2022 at the earliest and, as usual, the Supreme Court has failed to substantiate its decision to seize either case. However, both are unusual in that the Biden government has either changed the rules at the center of each case or has announced it will change them.
On climate change, the court will review a federal appeals court ruling that undid one of the Trump administration’s most dire climate rollbacks. The Biden government has announced that it is working on a replacement rule.
In practice, the decision to review the ruling on this case will likely make it difficult for the Biden government to enact a new rule regulating the planet-warming carbon emissions from the electricity sector.
West Virginia, which leads a coalition of 19 mostly Republican-led states and coal companies, called on the Supreme Court to include the case that the appeals court ruling would give the EPA almost unlimited powers to regulate in ways that would harm the coal industry .
“How we respond to climate change is an urgent problem for our nation, but some of the avenues into the future involve serious and disproportionate costs to states and countless other affected parties,” the states wrote, urging the court to open the case to record. “The ongoing uncertainty about the scope of the EPA’s powers will create costs that we will never be able to recoup.”
In a statement posted on Twitter after the court agreed to hear the case, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said: “Carbon pollution from power plants harms families and communities, and threatens businesses and workers. The courts have repeatedly upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate dangerous carbon pollution from power plants. “
The court will also consider whether Republican-led states can take on the defense of a Trump-era rule denying green cards to immigrants using public services like grocery stamps after the Biden administration dropped legal challenges.
A federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a lower court order that overturned the Trump-era rule nationwide. In March, the Biden government announced an agreement with the parties and states contesting the rule and also dropped their objections to the appeal decision.
The administration proposed a new regulation in August.
Under the Trump administration’s policy, applicants for green cards were required to demonstrate that they would not be a land charge or “public charge”.
Federal law already required those seeking permanent residence or legal status to demonstrate that they were not a “public charge”. But the Trump administration’s rule encompassed a wider range of programs that could disqualify them, like Medicaid, residential vouchers, or other public benefits.
The immigration case is being directed by the state of Arizona.
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