The Supreme Court has cleared the path for new lawsuits over old rules, drawing rebukes from liberal justices who called for Congress to intervene.
In a 6-3 ruling that divided the court along ideological lines, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority in Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System that companies that are harmed by federal rules should be able to challenge them in court — no matter how long those regulations have been in effect.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned in a dissenting opinion that Corner Post, paired with the court’s decision last week that overturned the basis for scores of Supreme Court decisions upholding rules from agencies like EPA, opens the floodgates to a “tsunami of lawsuits” that has the potential to handcuff federal regulators.
“But Congress still has a chance to address this absurdity and forestall the coming chaos,” she wrote. “It can opt to correct this Court’s mistake by clarifying that the statutes it enacts are designed to facilitate the functioning of agencies, not to hobble them.”
