Epa Decision News Today

outstanding supreme court decisions. joining me now to talk about all of them as we wait for them to come down, cnn chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, jeffrey toobin. i want to start on a case that is so consequential. explain this for the power of the administrative state and the executive branch to delegate its power. >> congress passes laws. i think everybody knows that. but laws are generally phrased in fairly general terms. and we have administrative agencies that ...

more history will also be made in the high court in minutes. judge ketanji brown jackson will be sworn in as the first black female justice on the supreme court. she will take the oath just after justice stephen breyer officially retires. lets start with cnns jessica schneider. she is live at the supreme court for us this hour. quite a way to round out the term. >> reporter: absolutely. two big decisions from the supreme court. first in that 6-3 decision the supreme court really restri...

Priscilla alvarez for us in hid dal go, texas. i want to bring you in on this decision on biden versus texas a win for the biden administration, but on a smaller scale than what were seeing with this epa decision. >> theres a threat here, poppy, that weve seen through some of the cases this term where the justices have been reluctant to tell an administration that they cant change policy. so we have a trump-era policy. biden wants to shift gears and do something different and people are saying, ...

Cant do in terms of regulating on climate change and then well talk about the administrative state. jess? >> reporter: its interesting because the chief justice in writing this opinion, one thing he said was that, you know, it seems a sensible solution that the epa might try to regulate coal emissions. however, even though he recognizes that its a pressing issue for the epa, this court then saying it is not plausible that congress gave epa the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory sche...

That congress would have to delegate power to an agency on any decision of vast economic and political significance very specifically, very clearly in its language. otherwise it will be able to be challenged on a major questions doctrine ground, which this court made clear will uphold. >> we in congress are to set the following limits. i mean, thats pretty specific. folks at home might say that doesnt sound like a big deal. fine. multiple that by the thousands and thousands of agencies setting t...

Some conservatives wanted in overruling the chevron case altogether. this decision is a defeat for the biden administration. its a defeat for the regulatory agencies and a defeat for the cause of limiting climate change, but its not quite as bad a defeat on climate change. >> how fast you read but its notable the court even took up these case because neither ruling was even in effect. lets go to rene marsh. they covers that day in and day out. talk about the actual implications of this given the...

Better position today to tackle the issues at hand than we ever have been. but in the white house statement, i just noticed it talks about this is a court aiming to move the country backwards. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, they are becoming incredibly critical of the supreme court in every comment he makes. that has raised a lot of questions and pressure on this white house from democrats, some like alexandria ocasio-cortez, elizabeth warren from the senate saying they need to change the court. it ...

Deportation. trump tried to end that. what john roberts did, poppy, when he cast the deciding vote youre recalling, is say that the administration did not offer a proper explanation. it did not do it correctly. that theme we saw in that decision just two years ago, which feels like it was yesterday, comes through loud and clear in this. in fact, what the chief, again, writing the decision, this time hes joined by now the three remaining liberals and justice brett kavanaugh saying you can do this...

State because that can be litigated in every single case. you know, the u.s. department of agriculture creates inspection standards for food plants. is that a major question? if were talking about beef, how many americans eat beef. that opens the door for not just the supreme court, but for lower court judges now to turn around and look at every single feature of federal administrative regulation and say, oh, this delegations not sufficiently specific because this is a major question. poppy, kno...