Senior legal analysts examine recent Supreme Court cases impacting abortion rights, the power of administrative agencies, and the ESG terrain

Supreme Court impacts ESG issues and is poised to do so again.

In its last term, the Supreme Court demonstrated its vast power to shape the future debate over ESG issues with its landmark decisions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning the right to an abortion at the federal level, and in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, a ruling that breathed new life into the Major Questions Doctrine, a principle that significantly limits a federal agency’s ability to make regulations. In its current term, the high Court will again consider paring down the EPA’s authority in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case where the agency’s authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act is being challenged.

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In a new Strategic Perspective piece entitled “Supreme Court impacts ESG issues and is poised to do so again”, Wolters Kluwer Senior Legal Analyst Cathleen Calhoun surveys how the high Court’s recent pivotal decisions have impacted the discussion around ESG issues, and explores how its ruling in another high profile case now being considered might further affect the ESG landscape.

Action in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) environment is stronger in the legislative and executive branches of government, but as history has shown, the judicial branch, and especially the U.S. Supreme Court, can influence change quickly, and surprisingly.
–     Cathleen Calhoun, J.D., Senior Legal Analyst

By reinvigorating the Major Question Doctrine, which limits the authority of administrative agencies, the High Court has raised its own major question regarding how far it is willing to go to further constrain the power of federal agencies in ongoing battles to protect the environment and address climate change.
–     Brad Rosen, J.D., Senior Legal Analyst

To read the full Strategic Perspective, visit: Supreme Court impacts ESG issues and is poised to do so again

Contact: To arrange an interview with Cathleen Calhoun, Brad Rosen, or other legal experts from Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. on this or any other legal topics, please contact Linda Gharib: [email protected] 

Source: Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.