Supreme Court spooks environmental groups with unanimous ruling

Ronald Reagan famously opined that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” But perhaps “Do you have approval from the government for that?” deserves an honorable mention.

Many an American Dream has suffered an untimely demise at the hands of an overbearing regulatory regime, strangled to death in an inextricable web of red tape. America, once a land of pioneers and explorers, has now given rise to an omnipresent class of bureaucrats and controllers equipped with a thousand ways to “help you achieve” (or, alternatively, crush) your dreams. 

Fortunately, in a rare showing of unity, the Supreme Court voted unanimously last week to limit federal oversight.

What began as a request to build a railroad in Utah — simple enough, right? — resulted in a 3,600-page report on the environmental impact of the project. (If ever you needed proof of the government’s unrivaled ability to pontificate, look no further.) In last week’s decision, the nation’s highest court ruled that the “extraordinarily lengthy” federal review overstepped and was overly elaborate.

According to the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), “certain infrastructure projects that are built, funded, or approved by the Federal Government” require “federal agencies to prepare an environmental impact statement, or EIS,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his conservative opinion. Amazingly, even though the analysis ran the length of two or three Bibles, a lower circuit court complained that the EIS for the railroad project had not gone far enough, stalling the project, initially approved in 2021, for several more years. At the time of this writing, construction has still not begun.

Voting 8-0 (Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from the case due to a potential conflict of interest), the Supreme Court agreed that the lower court should not have blocked the project. As Kavanaugh pointed out, “The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it.”

“Brevity should not be mistaken for lack of detail,” he said, scolding the courts for overplaying NEPA. “A relatively brief agency explanation can be reasoned and detailed; an EIS need not meander on for hundreds or thousands of pages. So courts should not insist on length as a prerequisite for finding an EIS to be detailed.” 

The liberal-leaning justices concurred with the majority, writing separately to explain why. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, while differing with the broader implications of the conservative opinion, nevertheless concluded that the government “had no authority to reject” the proposed railroad.

Unsurprisingly, environmental groups were dismayed by what they called a “disastrous decision to undermine our nation’s bedrock environmental law.”

“Today’s decision undermines decades of legal precedent that told federal agencies to look before they leap when approving projects that could harm communities and the environment,” blasted Earthjustice Senior Vice President of Program Sam Sankar. 

Such groups fail to understand that the ruling is not primarily about the environment but about how much regulation the government can reasonably impose on the states. “A 1970 legislative acorn has grown over the years into a judicial oak that has hindered infrastructure development,” Kavanaugh noted. Perhaps, after issuing a superfluous 3,600-page report about building a choo-choo track, that oak could use a trim.

This unanimous Supreme Court victory serves as a reminder that the fight against federal overreach is far from over. Washington continues to suffocate the American Dream beneath its tangled net of dos and don’ts — the Ten (Thousand) Commandments of the prophet Uncle Sam — and the American people lack the entrepreneurial spirit to break through.

Or do they?

The grassroots are rising up to resist despotism and recapture self-governance by calling for an Article V convention to propose amendments that limit federal spending, power, and terms of office. The government has held our hand and babied us for long enough; it’s time to show them what we’re capable of as pioneers. Sign the petition below to get started!