Professor Lazarus Helps Fix Error in Supreme Court Opinion
On Tuesday April 29, the Supreme Court issued a divided opinion in Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P. Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas dissented, and the dissent contained a noticeable error. The dissent explained, “This is not the first time EPA has sought to convert the Clean Air Act into a mandate for cost-effective regulation. Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U. S. 457 (2001), confronted EPA’s contention that it could consider costs in setting NAAQS.” Though Whitman did involve the claim that the Clean Air Act allowed the EPA to consider costs, it was not the EPA arguing in favor of considering costs, but rather industry. After Prof. Lazarus noticed the mistake, he invoked the Court’s formal rules and procedures and wrote the Court a letter pointing out the mistake. On Wednesday April 30, the Supreme Court had corrected the opinion. Read more here and here.
