General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I can't shake the feeling the Court is Congress reaping what it has sown [View all]BlueCheeseAgain
(1,654 posts)But one common thread in various recent SCOTUS decisions is that they say, "Congress didn't mean for POTUS to have that power. If Congress wants POTUS to have that power, they should pass a law saying so."
Like you say, this is sort of the reason for the EPA ruling. SCOTUS didn't say that the government can't regulate emissions, just that Congress hasn't given POTUS that power. It was also the reasoning behind barring OSHA's vaccine-or-test mandate.
Of course, SCOTUS knows that Congress won't do anything in this regard, so that they are effectively ending these policies. And SCOTUS does seem pretty selective sometimes about when POTUS is overstepping-- they ruled that TFG could bar immigration from certain Muslim countries, for example.
BTW, if Biden ever tries to forgive all student loan debt, you can be pretty sure that SCOTUS will say that Congress never intended for him to have that power.