Supreme Court issues key rulings on greenhouse gas emissions, 'Remain in Mexico' policy

The Supreme Court has ended its term with two more highly significant decisions.

In the first ruling announced on Thursday, the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision curbed the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, NBC News reports. The majority ruled that the Clean Air Act did not grant the EPA the authority "to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the agency took in the Clean Power Plan," per Axios.

The decision was a major blow to the Biden administration, which earlier this year announced a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent that the decision "deprives EPA of the power needed — and the power granted — to curb the emission of greenhouse gases."

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In a separate ruling, though, the Supreme Court did hand the Biden administration a win. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled the administration doesn't have to continue the "Remain in Mexico" immigration policy from the Trump administration, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting their claims to be heard. The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who said that "Congress conferred contiguous-territory return authority in expressly discretionary terms," and he was joined by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.