The Supreme Court has decided to play God. One hand grabs America by the pussy as the other cocks an unregulated rifle at environmental regulations. The Supreme Court has become painfully public over the course of three months rife with scandal, protest, and a staunch insistence on reverting progress into perversion. Today, the Supreme Court declared that the Environmental Protections Agency is not permitted to do their job, instead insisting that Congress solely possess the authority to pass cap-and-trade limits on greenhouse emissions. This ability – originally granted by Congress to the EPA – was revoked under the major questions doctrine, a code of law never before cited by the Supreme Court, under the guise of conservative justices restoring historic precedent(1).
As we descend deeper into what Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan delicately names “the most pressing environmental challenge of our time,” the conservatives of the Supreme Court have shown how much they care about the future of forced fetuses by siding with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey alongside fossil fuel lobbyists The North American Coal Corporation and Westmoreland Mining Holdings, LLC. These heroes of today’s world are truly inspirational in their bravery and courage to continue digging for gold – I mean, coal – in a region seasoned with a long history of corporations watching out for the good of their employees. (2)
Longview Power Plant has a shortsighted vision of West Virginia. Senator Joe Manchin’s website boasts about adding 100,000 jobs to the market all based in the fossil fuel industry in the Appalachians (3). The reason the EPA wanted to enact cap-and-trade limits was because this type of regulation grants industrial agents a maximum amount of emissions per year based on a credit system where excess credits can be traded or cashed back into the company (4). This style of regulation has surface level progress with underbelly problems, yet it succeeds in encouraging energy producers to gear towards switching their circuit boards towards clean energy sources like solar or wind. Without this regulatory power, the Supreme Court has successfully stunted the EPA’s ability to do their job better than Susan Collins can read the fine print.
Not all is lost. In one of those wacky twists of fate, today Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court (5). Replacing Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the court will retain its current political balance with its new pop of color. As the third Black Supreme Court Justice in United States history, she will also mark a historic number of women on the court at once – Four! Yippie! – while the current court joins the likes of depressed children in anticipation for summer vacation. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson prepares to enter a chaotic chamber come October.
Now what about her credentials for this position? Who is she anyway? Her credentials include not only one but two degrees from Harvard, experience as a law clerk, practiced law in private practice, was a federal public defender, served as Vice Chair and Commissioner in the U.S. Sentencing Commission, served on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and last year confirmed bipartisanly by the Senate to serve on the D.C. Circuit in addition to having clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer over 20 years ago. Her impressive list of emoluments feature letters of support from a diverse depth and range including but not limited to Attorney Generals, Conservatives, Black Woman, Jewish Women, Black Women Deans and Law professors, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Asian Pacific American Women, Law Students, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, LGBTQ+ and Allies as well as Everytown activists all coming out to support Jackson on her ascent to the Supreme Court (6).
Jackson serving on the court won’t be an immediate fix to the 400+ years of systematic racism or Atwoodian misogyny plaguing our country, but it is a place to start. She is a young Justice, starting out on the Supreme Court at the tender age of 51, meaning she has plenty of time to grow into her position and make the most of the highest court in the land. Jackson is a powerful force with a track record displaying an openness to interpreting the Constitution as a Living Document and willingness to hear out the opposing side. She isn’t flawless – she’s human, after all – and she’s exactly the kind of person we need to turn the Supreme Court’s practice from idolatry into sustainability.
There’s no denying the damage done today has added more poison to our air. Yet, our world is resilient, as are her people. Two steps backwards, one step forwards as Ketanji Brown Jackson marches up the Supreme Court staircase on October 2nd, 2022. Until we get there, we cannot sit idly by and let years of progress be for naught. Speak up, fight back, organize your neighborhood, raise the alarms, and by all means take care of yourself and your community because there is a future of peace to be built today.
Sources:
(1) CNBC. “Supreme Court limits EPA authority to set climate standards for power plants,” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/-supreme-court-says-epa-lacks-authority-on-climate-standards-for-power-plants.html
(2) National Park Service. “Introduction to the West Virginia Mine Wars.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/introduction-to-the-west-virginia-mine-wars.htm
(3 ) Manchin. “Energy and Natural Resources,” https://www.manchin.senate.gov/about/issues/energy
(4) Investopedia. “Cap and Trade,” https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cap-and-trade.asp
(5) msn. “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history as Supreme Court's first Black woman justice,” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-makes-history-as-supreme-court-s-first-black-woman-justice/ar-AAZ1ynw?cvid=5cf27ebbd04e418ea7add42774c18d35
(6) Senate. “JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON,” https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/judge-ketanji-brown-jackson.
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