Catholics entwined in SCOTUS case with environmental consequences

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

September 20, 2024

(NCR illustration/Toni-Ann Ortiz; John Eastman: Wikimedia Commons; Leonard Leo: AP/Sait Serkan Gurbuz; John Roberts: Wikimedia Commons; background: OSV News/Reuters/Kathleen Flynn)

While most Americans were still getting back into routine after the long Labor Day weekend, a federal appeals court issued a decision that captured little attention but carried big significance for future regulations around climate change and environmental justice.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, siding with industry groups, ruled Sept. 3 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency improperly classified industrial boilers under more stringent pollution standards. It was one of the first judicial opinions applying to an environmental rule a watershed Supreme Court decision reached earlier this summer that could represent a harbinger of how federal courts will operate in years to come.

As NCR staff writer Katie Collins Scott reports, the nation's highest court in a 6-3 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo abolished a longstanding precedent known as the "Chevron deference."

Established in 1984, the legal doctrine required courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguities in laws, environmental and otherwise, that they enforce.

The Chevron doctrine was among the most-cited precedents and enabled the government to more easily issue rules and regulations affecting public health, consumer protections and the environment.

Revoking the Chevron doctrine has been a longstanding goal for industries and conservatives who viewed it enabling agency overreach and excessive regulation while curbing religious freedom. Among their ranks were a number of Catholic entities and individuals, including John Eastman, the controversial lawyer at the forefront of 2020 election fraud conspiracies; Leonard Leo, the former Federalist Society co-chair and dark money financier; and Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion in Loper Bright.

The end of Chevron has environmental lawyers and Catholic advocates concerned that now non-expert judges will make crucial decisions about regulations — including those to address climate change and many forms of pollution — and that weakened federal regulatory powers could have a significant human as well as environmental impact.

Aaron Saiger, a law professor at Fordham University School of Law, told Collins Scott that if agencies cannot read the vagueness of the statutes to authorize the EPA to act, for instance on climate change, "then what you're saying is that the EPA cannot respond to the great environmental crisis of our moment."

Read more: Catholics among key backers of SCOTUS ruling that threatens environmental rules

What else is new on EarthBeat
 

What's happening in other climate news:

Biden administration spending climate cash fast, as Trump threatens to cancel it —Valerie Volcovici for Reuters

Chemicals from food packaging leach into food — affecting people’s health —Pien Huang for National Public Radio

Scientists have captured Earth's climate over the last 485 million years. Here's the surprising place we stand now. —Sarah Kaplan and Simon Ducroquet for the Washington Post

How Colorado cowboys and conservationists joined forces to stop drilling —Zoë Rom for The New York Times

A new life is proposed for Three Mile Island supplying power to Microsoft data centers —Marc Levy for the Associated Press

Worst drought on record lowers Amazon rivers to all-time lows —Jorge Silva and Leonardo Benassatto for Reuters

Final Beat:

A few weeks back, we put a call out in this space for readers to tell us how their Catholic parishes, schools, congregations and more are taking part in the Season of Creation.

JoDale Ales answered that call, sharing that the creation care ministry at St. George Catholic Church, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hosted an interfaith prayer service in partnership with the Interfaith Federation of Greater Baton Rouge.

The Aug. 28 event, taking place a few days before the Season began, included prayers and readings from an Episcopal priest, a Jewish rabbi and Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca. Other prayers were read by an 8th grader, on behalf of youth, and representatives of the Hindu, Buddhist and Ba'hai faiths along with two Native American tribes of Louisiana. More than 100 people attended the event, which was held in memory of one of the women who co-founded St. George's creation care ministry.

Started two years ago, the parish's creation care ministry is also passing out prayer cards during the Season of Creation and partnering with the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Ales said the interfaith prayer service reflected Pope Francis' call in his encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" for all people to unite to recognize and address the environmental catastrophes afflicting all parts of the planet.

"When Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si', it was to everybody. And we felt like we were doing what he asked us to do, is to all come together. … Each faith, they have a tradition related to the environment but bringing us all together and putting it in the forefront really led us into the Season of Creation," she said.

"It's not just words on paper," Ales added. "People are going from prayer to discernment to action. And united, we can have a better impact."

If your parish or Catholic community has a story about how you're celebrating the Season of Creation, do like JoDale did and share it with us. We'll feature those too in the season's remaining weeks.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat. 

Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org
Instagram: @broewe_ncr

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