Supreme Court Deals Blow To Activist Judges In Unanimous Ruling

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Supreme Court Deals Blow To Activist Judges In Unanimous Ruling

Trending Politics News
By Cullen McCue
May 29, 2025

The Supreme Court unanimously decided on Thursday to limit environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects in a case that will have sweeping impacts on President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

In a move that will restrict power of federal judges, Thursday’s decision reduces the scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to focus solely on immediate impacts. Under NEPA, federal agencies are required to study any potentially significant environmental consequences of federal permits for infrastructure projects.

“NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects based on the environmental effects of other projects separate from the project at hand,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the court’s opinion.

“Courts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness,” the opinion continued.

Kavanaugh further stated that agencies should not be expected to review the environmental impact of any project outside the one they are currently working on. This applies to”even if” possible environmental impacts “might extend outside the geographical territory of the project or materialize later in time.”

“The fact that the project might foreseeably lead to the construction or increased use of a separate project does not mean the agency must consider that separate project’s environmental effects,” the court ruled.

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