Kennedy Retirement Increases Odds Of High Court Backing EPA Rollbacks

摘要

Justice Anthony Kennedy's decision to retire from the Supreme Court gives President Donald Trump the chance to nominate a replacement who could secure a strong 5-4 conservative majority of justices, increasing the odds that the court will uphold Trump's roll-back of Obama EPA regulations and new policies that weaken agency rules.In particular, Kennedy's retirement could have a major impact on expected litigation over EPA's pending rule to replace the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction policy, which was based on a test for jurisdiction Kennedy crafted in a 4-4-1 high court ruling from 2006. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said he wants to repeal that rule and replace it, and is expected to rely on the late Justice Antonin Scalia's narrower CWA test from the same ruling.