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Tomlinson: Texas billionaire wins big with friend’s Supreme Court decision

12 7
02.07.2024

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas flip-flopped last week and joined the court’s majority in gutting the power of federal agencies.

Harlan Crow co-founded the Club for Growth in 1999 to promote limited government and overturn the Chevron decision.

Pumpjacks operate next to large wind turbines near Midland.

Texas billionaire Harlan Crow certainly got his money’s worth from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Thomas flip-flopped last week and joined the court’s majority in gutting the power of federal agencies, empowering federal judges and loosening protections for U.S. citizens. Americans will miss the “deep state” when it’s gone, and corporations run roughshod over the environment, public health and safety.

Last week, the Supreme Court overturned one of the most cited precedents of the previous 40 years, a doctrine called “Chevron deference.” In an air pollution case involving the oil giant, a unanimous court said judges considering scientific questions should defer to expert regulators when a law passed by Congress is vague.

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In 1984, the court recognized that Congress cannot anticipate every potential application of a law. The court said federal judges had no business second-guessing agency experts if the regulation wasn’t arbitrary, capricious or manifestly contrary to the statute.

Government agencies responsible for consumer, environmental........

© Houston Chronicle


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