"After a summer marked by massive upheavals to abortion access, gun safety and climate regulation, the Supreme Court’s newly empowered six-justice conservative majority appears poised to undercut longstanding approaches to environmental protection and racial equity.
The new term opens Monday with arguments in the landmark Clean Water Act case Sackett v. EPA and a new justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson — on the bench.
Jackson’s ascent is monumental in that she is the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice. But her addition to the diminished three-justice liberal wing won’t dilute the power of a conservative majority that has signaled interest in scaling back the federal government’s ability to act on health emergencies, climate change and other key issues."