The Supreme Court's latest term has kicked off a free-for-all that lets right-wing judges and attorneys challenge just about any federal policy they want, reported Politico on Monday — including much of President Joe Biden's agenda to protect workers and consumers.
The right-wing majority did this in a trio of rulings, the report stated: one that overturns a longstanding doctrine that judges defer to the expertise of agency policymakers; one that effectively eliminates the statute of limitations to challenge federal regulations; and one that requires far more regulatory enforcement actions be subject to a jury trial rather than an administrative hearing.
The rulings come as right-wing judges in lower courts rush to roll back policies in several areas, wrote Marcia Brown: "In Texas, a federal judge blocked Biden’s ban on noncompete agreements for workers, and a judge in Mississippi stopped his discrimination protections in health care for transgender people. And an Ohio-based appeals court temporarily halted a policy preventing internet companies from throttling service."
This could endanger a variety of rules the Biden administration has promulgated including "rules to crack down on credit card late fees, require airlines to fork over cash refunds and make millions more people eligible for overtime pay while reining in polluting industries" — even if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats former President Donald Trump this year, Politico reported.
The result, said the article, is a "de facto conservative veto" that lets right-wing legal groups and corporate interests knock down any policy they wish far more easily.
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“We have an extremist Supreme Court with a very political agenda that is willing to overturn decades of precedent,” said House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). “It has changed the legal strategy.”
Nonetheless, some progressive groups are confident that despite the challenges, these rulings will not change Biden's legislative accomplishments including landmark investments in infrastructure and manufacturing — nor the Democratic Party's overall vision to safeguard consumer rights.
“On the one hand, I think it’s a very destabilizing development,” said Groundwork Institute policy director Bilal Baydoun, whose group has played a role in progressive policymaking. “On the other hand, I think Democrats are more emboldened, I think, to protect the mechanisms of governance that create a fairer, more just and more sustainable society.”
