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JUNE 30, 2022

ANOTHER HIT FOR THE SUPREMES:  While President Biden was tastelessly attacking the Supreme Court while on a foreign trip, the actual court was handing down a decision informing the federal government that its powers are not unlimited.  Liberals are shocked  There are faintings.  There are medical emergencies.  911 operators are overworked.  From Fox Business: 

The Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to the Biden administration’s climate change agenda, ruling Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot pass sweeping regulations that could overhaul entire industries without additional congressional approval.

The decision in West Virginia v. EPA could also impact how other federal agencies address rulemaking going forward.

The case stemmed from the Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan which aimed to reduce carbon emissions at power plants. The plan was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2016, and then repealed by the Trump administration and replaced by the less extreme Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule. 

After President Biden took office, the ACE Rule became the subject of litigation that led to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacating that rule as well as the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The Biden EPA, however, has stated that it will not reinstate the Clean Power Plan, opting instead to develop and implement its own plan.

The question of how much power the EPA has was based on a provision in Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, which grants the EPA power to set "standards of performance" for existing sources of air pollutants as long as they take into account cost, energy requirements, and non-air health and environmental impacts. 

The Trump EPA, in repealing the Clean Power Plan, took the position that Section 111 only let them determine measures to be implemented at the physical power plants themselves (an "inside-the-fence-line" restriction) and not broadly-applied measures for entire industries.

Similarly, West Virginia and other states claimed that Section 111 does not allow the EPA to go so far as to make rules that would completely reshape American electrical grids or force industries to eliminate carbon emissions altogether. 

West Virginia’s argument is based on the "major questions doctrine," which says that even though federal agencies generally have broad rule-making power as delegated by Congress through the statutes that create them, when it comes to issues of major economic and political significance to the country those statutes need to have clear language to support the agency’s action.

Without clear language, they would need new legislation that specifically grants them the power to carry out their actions.

The Biden EPA claimed that the major questions doctrine did not apply in this case, arguing that there was no issue of such great significance. During oral arguments, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asserted that there cannot be a major question because there is no current rule in place. 

Additionally, the administration argued that there is no major question because the U.S. ended up meeting the Obama administration’s carbon goals even without the Clean Power Plan in place.

COMMENT:  Another victory for the people.  Agencies may not exceed their authority.  Major decisions require Congressional approval.  Geez, what a concept.  Limited government.  Must be a bunch of fascists on that court. 

June 30, 2022       Permalink

JUNE 29, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE

A DYING CITY:   Chicago fades away, and all the mayor does is curse Clarence Thomas.  From Fox:  A business owner in Chicago, Illinois tells Fox News Digital that skyrocketing crime in the city forced him to quit doing business in town, adding to the list of individuals and businesses that have fled Illinois over the past couple of years, amid surging crime.  Gary Rabine, founder of the Rabine Group and owner of 13 businesses, told Fox News Digital this week that surging crime in Chicago was a driving factor in his decision to pull his road paving company out of the city after his crews were repeatedly robbed, sometimes in broad daylight, even after adding security to the jobs.  "We would do thousands of jobs a year in the city, but as we got robbed more, my people operating rollers and pavers we got robbed, our equipment would get stolen in broad daylight and there would usually be a gun involved, and it got expensive and it got dangerous," Rabine told Fox News Digital.  Rabine said that the additional cost of security and insurance for the "thousands" of jobs in the city each year eventually caused jobs to cost "twice as much as they should be." Rabine explained that the higher costs ultimately hurt the ratepayers, many of them with modest financial means, who ended up paying more for utility services.  And it's not getting any better.  The mayor, who cursed out Justice Thomas after last week's abortion decision, has all the qualifications one needs to be mayor of a Democratic city – she's female, black, and lesbian.  It's sad, but Chicago shows the cost of identity politics.  More people in the city are being murdered as this is written. 

June 29, 2022       Permalink

NOW HERE'S AN INTERESTING IDEA:  There's much talk on our side, and at Urgent Agenda, about the lack of intellectual diversity in the institutions that pass for schools these days.  Here is a Louisiana legislator who's actually doing something about it, and seems like a very serious guy.  From College Fix: 

A new task force to be established by Louisiana lawmakers will examine tenure policies at the state’s colleges and universities and suggest possible reforms.

The review comes amid concerns about intellectual diversity and ideologically driven tenure criteria in Louisiana and nationwide.

The bill’s sponsor, Louisiana state Sen. Stewart Cathey, a Republican, said he sees a lack of intellectual diversity in higher education both nationally and in Louisiana.

“We should be seeking intellectual diversity in higher education, not running from it,” he told The College Fix in an email. “…[A]ny professor, no matter their political persuasion, trying to coerce students towards one side of the political aisle is unhealthy for academia.”

The bipartisan resolution approving the task force’s creation stated that “no party or intellectual faction has a monopoly on wisdom. … [T]he role of tenure policy in postsecondary education should be routinely reviewed and discussed.”

Approved in May and scheduled to be formed in August, the task force will facilitate an “in-depth review of the merits of and need for tenure, to study public postsecondary tenure policies, and to propose any recommendations regarding tenure policies, including any specific proposals for legislation.”

It will include both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers as well as faculty and administrative representatives from the state’s colleges and universities.

Intellectual diversity is specifically mentioned throughout the resolution. The document describes diversity of thought as “paramount to achieving the central purposes of postsecondary education.”

There are over eight times as many professors registered as Democrats than Republicans, according to a 2020 study from the National Association of Scholars. The disparity widens further at elite universities.

The Louisiana resolution notes that “postsecondary education students should be confident that they are being exposed to the spectrum of viewpoints, including those that are dissenting.”

Another concern addressed in the resolution is the potential for indoctrination.

Students should feel that “they are graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge” and “that faculty members are not using their courses for the purposes of political, ideological, religious, or antireligious indoctrination,” it states.

Cathey, in his email to The College Fix, cited a 2020 incident in which a biology professor at Louisiana State University pledged to police student’s social media, saying any student who posted content she deemed racist would be blacklisted from her classes.

“If @LSU won’t take action, we as professors can. Keeping a list of names and if I see them enrolled in my course, I will drop them. It’s not just free speech, it’s hate speech and it’s a threat to student safety,” the professor had stated on Twitter.

Cathey told The Fix that “certainly, I don’t condone racism or racist remarks, but for a professor to claim to be able to play judge, jury, and executioner is not a good look for academia.”

Cathey said that while the task force is not a response to any direct student concerns, some students—fed up with dogmatic, pushy professors—later thanked him for the pending scrutiny.

COMMENT:  Good so far, but it's only a start.  The left, which is powerful in many universities, will try to shut this down, as they have shut down almost every attempt at real diversity.  I think there's a chance our side is getting strong enough on some campuses to fight back.

June 29, 2022       Permalink