sackett v. epa

Fordham Law professors Tracy Higgins, Abner Greene, and Ethan Leib join Julie Suk on the Constitutional Crisis Hotline to analyze the major cases of the Supreme Court Term that just ended, and then debate about the public criticisms of the Court’s legitimacy.

In the last few weeks, the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action programs, calling into question whether institutions can promote diversity in race conscious ways.  It protected the free expression of a Christian website designer who opposes same-sex marriage against a Colorado law that would require her to offer her services to same-sex couples. The Court also struck down President Biden's effort to forgive student loan debt during the pandemic.  Is the Court redefining the policy landscape on a broad range of socially divisive issues?  Do these decisions--taken together with its decisions last Term on abortion and guns--call the Court's legitimacy into question?  What are we talking about when we question the Court's legitimacy anyway?  And what cases should we look out for this coming Fall?

Recent decisions discussed:

Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University

Allen v. Milligan

303 Creative v. Elenis

Sackett v. EPA

Biden v. Nebraska

Upcoming cases to watch:

U.S. v. Rahimi

Netchoice v. Paxton (if the Court decides to grant cert.)

Alexander v. South Carolina

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Dave and Anna provide high-level reactions to the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the Sackett v. EPA case, the latest legal battle in a long-running dispute over the meaning of the phrase "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act. They discuss the Court's surprising focus on a little-known parenthetical in the section 404 program, EPA's potential reactions to the arguments, and whether anyone can reasonably predict the outcome of the case in what may be the most closely watched environmental decision of the current term.