Prior to the existence of the EPA, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio repeatedly caught fire (Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University)

Something That Bears Repeating In Light Of Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling

Not all regulation is over-regulation

The Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (and by that ruling, other agencies too), probably would’ve happened anyway.

By that I mean even before the current makeup of the court. When Justices Kennedy and Scalia are still there. Or even minus the “stolen seat”.

Which is why I haven’t addressed it with the same ferocity or urgency as the other recent precedent-toppling Supreme Court cases that are very much rooted in radical Christian fundamentalism: abortion, separation between church and state, public school prayer.

When Justice Kennedy sided with Liberals on the Court, most notably ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, these were moral and ethical issues. Not business-related. So while I can’t say for sure Justice Kennedy would’ve voted the same way his replacement and heir Justice Kavanaugh did, he was pretty pro-business down the line.

In fact, the few social issues he sided with Liberals on tended to have pro-business components if you sit down and think about it. In fact, the Koch brothers, who were/are (one of them’s now dead) often presented as the paragons of pro-business-deregulate-everything conservatism, were…