Supreme Court Halts Clean Power Plan Pending Court Review

Shortly after issuing the ruling, on Feb. 13, conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at a West Texas hunting resort. Scalia’s passing has policy and political ramifications that are difficult to overstate. If a successor is not confirmed and the court reaches a 4-4 tie on a matter, the lower court’s ruling would stand, or the justices could rehear the case when a ninth jurist is empanelled.

Meanwhile, the case is progressing in the lower court. Litigants filed opening briefs with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, and 34 Senators and 171 Republican Members of Congress filed an amicus curiae brief saying that Congress never intended to vest the EPA with authority to promulgate such a sweeping rule.

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