The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday approved a power grab by corporate interests who want to strip federal agencies of their power to regulate public health, the climate and environment, worker protection and more. In the 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority overturned a precedent known as the Chevron doctrine that stems from a Reagan-era ruling called Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which established that judges should defer to federal agencies on interpreting a law if Congress did not specifically address the issue. We speak with Mustafa Ali, former head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency, who describes it as “a very devastating decision,” and to The Nation's justice correspondent, Elie Mystal. “It's taking power out of our hands, out of the democracy’s hands, and putting it in the hands of the court,” says Mystal, who also addresses other recent rulings from the court at the end of its term, including the highly anticipated ruling on presidential immunity.
