Francisco Goya “Saturno Devorando su Hijo”
July 1 was a really dark day for our Republic. I’m sure I don’t need to elaborate, but the result will be that America will become a Corporate Monarchy – aptly named Donald J. Trump v. United States. It was so shocking it overshadowed the previous week’s Supreme Court ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo – also known as the “Chevron Deference.”
This 40-year-old statute established the authority of Governmental Agencies – including the Regulatory Agencies that we in the conservation business rely on to advance our work. This gist of the Chevron Deference was that when laws, acts, or bills passed by Congress are “ambiguous,” sorting out the ambiguity defers to the Agencies – peopled by experts in their various respective fields.
Last week the Supreme Court decided that the authority of sorting out ambiguities now defers to the courts – to be argued by people expert in law, but not expert in things like education, medicine, or marine bioacoustics, for example.
In these cases, those with the largest financial resources are more likely to get a favorable ruling, handing the regulation and governance of our laws over to ungoverned Corporations. This eviscerates the effectiveness of our regulatory landscape because laws passed and regulations enforced become tainted by the biases of the various district courts of the country.
So, for example; a methane leakage ordinance enforced in California and adjudicated in the Ninth Circuit would more likely inure to public health and safety, whereas the same ordinance heard in the Fifth Circuit would more likely inure to the Fossil Fuel companies.
Of course both of these cases could be appealed to the Supreme Court. But you know where that takes us… The Supreme Court as “Cement Mixer.”
So these rulings, in addition to splitting the Executive Branch into a King – while gutting the various governing agencies, have set up a nation that will be governed by money and influence, not public safety and quality of life.
This will be difficult to roll back. It will take a lot of skilled footwork should we manage to get more reasonable hands on the tiller of State. And we are facing some really stiff winds.
If you have not heard if “Project 2025,” it would be worth a review. It is the Heritage Foundation’s roadmap for concocting a completely different nation. Under the rubric of “Dismantling the Administrative State,” one of the intentions will be to replace as many Career Administrators (and scientists, and medical professionals, and educators, etc.) with party loyalists.
I thought that the upcoming national election might be the fork in the road where we could choose between Project 2025 and our professionally administered democracy. This last week of Supreme Court rulings makes clear that they already have a leg up.
