Leaked memos reveal how Supreme Court steamrolled Obama climate plan in 2016 showdown
The Supreme Court’s emergency order blocking former President Barack Obama’s signature clean energy initiative in 2016 came after a series of leaked internal memos among the justices that revealed a...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Supreme Court’s emergency order blocking former President Barack Obama ’s signature clean energy initiative in 2016 came after a series of leaked internal memos among the justices that revealed a fight along ideological lines about whether to intervene. The rare glimpse at the high court’s internal memos, obtained by the New York Times , showed Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, urging the Supreme Court to block Obama’s effort, while liberal justices pushed back. Roberts and the court’s conservatives were concerned not just with Obama’s policy itself, but with the possibility that the Clean Power Plan could reshape the power sector before the justices could fully review whether it was lawful, the newly revealed memos show. "Absent a stay, the Clean Power Plan will cause (and is causing) substantial and irreversible reordering of the domestic power sector before this court has an opportunity to review its legality," Roberts wrote in one of the memos published by the New York Times on Friday. JACKSON-KAVANAUGH TENSIONS SURFACE IN CANDID EXCHANGE OVER SUPREME COURT 'SHADOW DOCKET' Fox News Digital reached out to the Supreme Court's communications team Monday for comment on the leaks. The push from Roberts came as the justices were considering what was viewed at the time as an unusual request on the emergency docket, sometimes called a "shadow docket," from red states and outside groups to halt the Obama-era regulation, which aimed to cut carbon emissions over the next 25 years, before lower courts had fully weighed in, a step that the liberal justices warned would break from longstanding practice. The emergency docket allows litigants to bypass typical court proceedings and seek immediate relief from the Supreme Court if lower courts block them through restraining orders or preliminary injunctions. The Clean Power Plan would have involved the Obama Environmental Protection Agency regulating coal, oil and gas plants under t…