{"id":2612286,"date":"2026-06-09T07:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-has-the-chance-to-deliver-decisive-blow-to-the-epas-unconstitutional-overreach\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T07:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:44:09","slug":"scotus-has-the-chance-to-deliver-decisive-blow-to-the-epas-unconstitutional-overreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-has-the-chance-to-deliver-decisive-blow-to-the-epas-unconstitutional-overreach\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Could Strike Down EPA&#8217;s Unconstitutional Overreach"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fscotus-has-the-chance-to-deliver-decisive-blow-to-the-epas-unconstitutional-overreach%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2612286&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Biden EPA created a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) cap-and-trade system under the AIM Act that it says could consider \u201cequity\u201d when assigning \u201callowances\u201d too market participants. Although Congress set percentage reductions for HFCs,the article argues Congress did not tell the EPA how to choose which companies get allowances. The EPA instead reserved allowances for \u201cnew entrants,\u201d which the article claims disadvantaged established businesses like Choice Refrigerants,a small Georgia company that invested early in refrigerant blends.<\/p>\n<p>Choice Refrigerants challenged the EPA\u2019s allowance-allocation rules,but a lower court upheld the program,reasoning that Congress could leave the market-share allocation decisions to the agency. The petition for Supreme Court review (to be considered at an upcoming conference) is presented as a possible \u201csleeper\u201d case aimed at the constitutional limits of agency power-specifically the nondelegation doctrine.The argument is that allowing the EPA to decide who can participate, potentially using social-justice criteria, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >effectively lets unelected officials make law<\/a> without sufficient guidance from Congress. The petition also points to broader Supreme Court developments, including the Court\u2019s move away from Chevron deference, and references interest among some justices in revisiting the standards that permit Congress to delegate meaningful policymaking discretion to agencies.  <\/p>\n<p>The article concludes that if the Supreme court takes up and strengthens the nondelegation principle,it could further constrain the administrative state by requiring Congress to supply the operative policy rules rather than leaving major national-policy choices to agencies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The EPA under the Biden Administration crafted a cap-and-trade scheme to allocate market share in the multibillion-dollar hydrofluorocarbons industry \u2014 including to \u201cnew market participants\u201d based on the promotion of \u201cequity.\u201d Now, one of the businesses the EPA rendered a market-share loser under the federal agency\u2019s unconstitutional take-over of the hydrofluorocarbon industry seeks review by the Supreme Court. And that pending petition represents a sleeper case that could implode much of the administrative state if it makes it onto the high court\u2019s docket next term.<\/p>\n<p>Next Thursday, the Supreme Court will conference over the pending petition for review, called a petition for certiorari, in the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/25\/25-1079\/400190\/20260306125641292_Updated%20Petition%20-%20Choice%20Refigerants.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>RMS of Georgia, LLC, dba Choice Refrigerants v. EPA<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em>The petitioner, known more widely as Choice Refrigerants, is a small business operating out of Georgia which invested in patented blends of refrigerants for air conditioning and other products in the early 2000s. At the time, the EPA encouraged the development of hydrofluorocarbons to replace the ozone-depleting refrigerants then on the market.<\/p>\n<p>In December of 2020, Congress passed a statute called the AIM Act, short for the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, which mandated a phasedown in the United States of hydrofluorocarbons using a cap-and-trade program. The AIM Act provided for a phased elimination of 85% of hydrofluorocarbons produced in, or imported to, the United States.<\/p>\n<p>While Congress detailed in the AIM Act the cap for each phase of the plan to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, the statute provided no direction for the EPA to decide who should receive \u201callowances\u201d under the law. With no guidance from Congress, the EPA invented its own standards for doling out allowances, with the EPA reserving millions of allowances for \u201cnew entrants.\u201d The EPA\u2019s final rule from October 5, 2021, also expressly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2021\/10\/05\/2021-21030\/phasedown-of-hydrofluorocarbons-establishing-the-allowance-allocation-and-trading-program-under-the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">provided<\/a> multiple times that, in allocating market share, it could consider \u201cequity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The EPA later issued a final rule in July of 2023 to cover allocation of hydrofluorocarbons from 2024 through 2028. That final rule continued to provide for allowances to \u201cnew market\u201d entrants, prejudicing Choice Refrigerants and other businesses to the advantage of those deemed worthy by the Biden Administration.<\/p>\n<p>When Choice Refrigerants challenged the EPA\u2019s scheme, the EPA initially defended its allocation of market-share by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/25\/25-1079\/400190\/20260306125641292_Updated%20Petition%20-%20Choice%20Refigerants.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claiming<\/a> it \u201cwas free to issue the allowances in a reasonable manner, reasonably explained,\u201d based on <em>Chevron <\/em>deference. However, the Supreme Court would later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2024\/06\/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overrule<\/a> the <em>Chevron <\/em>doctrine \u2014 a doctrine which required courts to defer to an agency\u2019s interpretation of a statute so long as it was reasonable. <\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the lower court rubberstamped the EPA\u2019s cap-and-trade program, holding Congress could leave it up to the EPA to decide how to allocate market share. The ramification of this reasoning is truly boundless, as Choice Refrigerants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/25\/25-1079\/400190\/20260306125641292_Updated%20Petition%20-%20Choice%20Refigerants.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> in its petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court: The lower court\u2019s decision \u201cleaves EPA free to choose which companies may participate in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-of-taxpayer-funded-antiracist-group-funneled-nearly-300k-to-husbands-law-firm\/\" title=\"President of Taxpayer-Funded Antiracist Group Funneled Nearly 0K to Husband\u2019s ... Firm\">multibillion-dollar industry<\/a>, and which may not, based entirely on the agency\u2019s policy preferences, whether grounded in preserving orderly markets, advancing social justice, achieving environmental ends, or bare revenue raising.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the EPA had previously proposed handing out allowance by \u201cprioritizing applications for <em>new <\/em>market entry from \u2018minority- and woman-owned small businesses\u2019 that may have faced \u2018challenges entering the HFC import market due to systemic racism, market-access barriers, or other challenges, . . . .\u2019\u201d While the final rule only spoke of the EPA considering \u201cequity, human dignity, fairness, and distributional considerations\u201d in establishing market share, the government\u2019s reasoning \u2014 if upheld \u2014 would allow federal agencies to decide winners and losers based on race or sex.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA\u2019s entire cap-and-trade scheme is antithetical to America\u2019s free market system, but there is an even more fundamental flaw, which serves as the basis for Choice Refrigerants\u2019 request that the Supreme Court hear its appeal. As noted above, Congress, in passing the AIM Act, said nothing to the EPA concerning who should receive allowances to continue to produce or import hydrofluorocarbons. The lower court just invented its own standard \u2014 a clear violation of our Constitution\u2019s foundational principle that lawmaking authority is vested in the legislative branch, not the unelected bureaucrats that run the EPA and the scores of other federal agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court has branded this concept \u201cthe nondelegation doctrine,\u201d although it stems from Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution which provides: \u201c<strong>All <\/strong>legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, . . . .\u201d However, while Article I, Section 1 vests \u201c<strong>all <\/strong>legislative Powers\u201d in Congress, the Supreme Court currently acquiesces in the delegation of power to agencies so long as the statute establishes an \u201cintelligible principle\u201d to direct the bureaucrat\u2019s exercise of power.<\/p>\n<p>The AIM Act contains no such \u201cintelligible principle,\u201d though, when it comes to divining who is entitled to receive hydrofluorocarbon allowances. Yet, the lower court upheld the EPA\u2019s regulation against Choice Refrigerants\u2019 nondelegation doctrine challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did the lower court err, as Choice Refrigerants argued in its petition for certiorari, but \u201c[m]ultiple Justices have written . . . to underscore the need for \u2018further consideration\u2019 of the rules governing delegations of power to decide important questions of national policy.\u201d And in this regard, the Chief Justice, along with Justices Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas, believe the Supreme Court should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/24-354_0861.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">abandon<\/a> the \u201cintelligible principle\u201d and nondelegation doctrine and return to \u201cthe Constitution\u2019s original meaning and historic practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Supreme Court has, to date, been reticent to reinvigorate the nondelegation doctrine. Choice Refrigerants\u2019 petition, however, presents the perfect opportunity for the high court to return to first principles and make clear that Congress cannot delegate away its power to make the law. Doing so would also solve the teeth-gnashing of late over President Trump\u2019s exercise of control over executive branch agencies, for if the agencies lack the authority to make law, Trump cannot use his Article II power to commandeer the country. When it conferences on June 18, 2026 over Choice Refrigerants\u2019 petition, the Supreme Court will likely have those recent legal battles in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last several years, the current Supreme Court has made great strides in restraining the administrative state by returning to the Constitution\u2019s design of separation of powers. But until the Court addresses the flawed and non-textual nondelegation doctrine, federal agencies will continue to make laws \u2014 and pick winners and losers.<\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: The New Civil Liberties Alliance represents Choice Refrigerants. Ms. Cleveland is <em>Of Counsel <\/em>at NCLA but is not an attorney of record on the case.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-alito-freakout-is-a-false-flag-operation-to-take-down-the-court\/\" title=\"Democrats are falsely targeting Alito to undermine the Court\">nationally syndicated radio programs<\/a> and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-sussmanns-lawyers-its-ok-if-he-lied-to-the-fbi\/\" title=\"Michael Sussmann\u2019s ...yers: It\u2019s OK If He Lied To The FBI\">permanent law clerk<\/a> for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-media-lies-about-the-latest-special-counsel-revelations\/\" title=\"5 Media Lies About The Latest Special Counsel Revelations\">full-time university faculty member<\/a> and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden EPA\u2019s cap-and-trade plan used \u201cequity\u201d to shift market share; a affected business seeks Supreme Court review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2612287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-leandro-paes-leme-3903752-6610670-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[43482,68142,10732,81051,6994],"class_list":["post-2612286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-constitutional-law","tag-environmental-regulation","tag-epa","tag-regulatory-overreach","tag-scotus"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-leandro-paes-leme-3903752-6610670-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2612286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2612290,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612286\/revisions\/2612290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2612287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2612286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2612286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2612286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}