Some sad news.

High Court Rebukes Bush on Car Pollution — AP

The Supreme Court of the United States yesterday handed down an opinion declared that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. (As an aside, you now pollute every time you breathe.)

The majority said the agency must tie its rationale more closely to the Clean Air Act.

In his dissent, Roberts focused on the issue of standing, whether a party has the right to file a lawsuit.

The court should simply recognize that dealing with the complaints spelled out by the state of Massachusetts is the function of Congress and the chief executive, not the federal courts, Roberts said.

He said his position “involves no judgment on whether global warming exists, what causes it, or the extent of the problem.”

Justice Antonin Scalia, in a separate dissent, said the court should not substitute its judgment in place of the EPA’s, “no matter how important the underlying policy issues at stake.”

In other words, the four liberals (plus one) on the bench proclaimed, in typical oligarchy fashion, to substitute their judgment — five people — for the judgment of the the Congress and the President. The four conservatives, rational minds all, did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Here’s an excerpt from the Clean Air Act:

Sec. 202. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b)-
(1) The Administrator shall by regulation prescribe (and
from time to time revise) in accordance with the provisions of
this section, standards applicable to the emission of any air
pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or
new motor vehicle engines, which in his judgment cause, or
contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. Such
standards shall be applicable to such vehicles and engines for
their useful life (as determined under subsection (d), relating
to useful life of vehicles for purposes of certification),
whether such vehicles and engines are designed as complete
systems or incorporate devices to prevent or control such
pollution.

Emphasis mine

So the Administrator of the EPA, as conceived by both houses of Congress in the Clean Air Act and passed by the President of the United States, is given the authority to decide what is an air pollutant. That’s how the system works; that is, unless you are a liberal activist. If that is the case, you just usurp the power from the other two branches and declare that you have the power to decide what’s an air pollutant.

Here’s the final paragraph from Scalia’s dissent (so you can see if the quote above is taken out of context):

The Court’s alarm over global warming may or may not be justified, but it ought not distort the outcome of this litigation. This is a straightforward administrative-law case, in which Congress has passed a malleable statute giving broad discretion, not to us but to an executive agency. No matter how important the underlying policy issues at stake, this Court has no business substituting its own desired outcome for the reasoned judgment of the responsible agency.

That, my friends, is why we need better federal justices. Vote conservative.