Contentious Supreme Court oral arguments this week offered a reminder that while the public focuses on the Donald Trump election cases, the court’s actions this spring will be equally consequential for an array of rules set in Washington governing American life.
Supreme Court conservatives are accelerating their moves to overhaul the way the federal government protects Americans, whether from air pollution or unfair financial practices.
Although the decisions won’t be released until later this year, the frustration of liberal justices was palpable this week, as their sharp remarks from the bench drew attention to the pattern of the right-wing majority to diminish environmental, public health and consumer safeguards.
In recent years, the justices have invalidated rules for power-plant emissions, student-loan forgiveness and Covid-19 precautions. They are hearing a slate of new cases in the current session that seem bound to reinforce the current trend that breaks from decades of precedent.
Justice Elena Kagan, who has warned in outside speeches of public distrust when legal rulings change simply because of new appointees, brought that emphasis to the bench on Tuesday.
She posed a scenario involving a trade association that sues over a regulation, loses, then “10 years later … looks around and thinks: You know, the environment is more hospitable. The judges have changed. Let’s try again.”
The court’s actions in cases beyond the Trump election controversies will illuminate another effect of the former president: the conservative juggernaut is possible only because of his three high court appointees: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. (Since the Barrett confirmation in 2020, a 6-3 conservative dominance has taken hold.)
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