outstanding supreme court decisions. joining me now to talk about all of them as we wait for them to come down, cnn chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, jeffrey toobin. i want to start on a case that is so consequential. explain this for the power of the administrative state and the executive branch to delegate its power. congress passes laws. i think everybody knows that. but laws are generally phrased in fairly general terms. and we have administrative agencies that translate those laws into rules that individuals and companies must follow. the question in the west virginia case is how much deference, how much do we allow the administrative agencies to interpret the laws that congress gives them. there s a doctrine of law called the chevron deference where court has said if it s reasonable, we will allow administrative agencies to interpret congress s statutes. what conservatives have been fighting for in recent years is for the supreme court to say, no, we
more history will also be made in the high court in minutes. judge ketanji brown jackson will be sworn in as the first black female justice on the supreme court. she will take the oath just after justice stephen breyer officially retires. let s start with cnn s jessica schneider. she is live at the supreme court for us this hour. quite a way to round out the term. reporter: absolutely. two big decisions from the supreme court. first in that 6-3 decision the supreme court really restricting the epa s power to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. and at the same time the supreme court here is sending a signal that for big issues, big decisions from the epa and even other agencies, those big issues and decisions could eventually be struck down by this court if they weren t explicitly written out by congress as agencies having the power to do. so this is what the chief justice john roberts wrote in his opinion saying it is not plausible that congress gave epa the author
but the so-called chevron doctrine, which is based on the case with chevron, who was one of the parties, if they get rid of this doctrine of law, it would limit the power of the federal government when it comes to environment and lots of other areas as well. so we just got this decision down. it looks like roberts wrote the majority opinion. we re waiting for jessica schneider to bring us that opinion. it s complicated. it s beyond what the epa can do here. this brings up the question potentially, will chevron deference be overturned in this country and will that constrain the power of agencies beyond the epa? we ll bring it to you as we can. jeffrey, as you look at it, one thing that s notable is the same day that this was argued in oral argument, the united nations handed down that report warning of the damage of climate change.
priscilla alvarez for us in hid dal go, texas. i want to bring you in on this decision on biden versus texas a win for the biden administration, but on a smaller scale than what we re seeing with this epa decision. there s a threat here, poppy, that we ve seen through some of the cases this term where the justices have been reluctant to tell an administration that they can t change policy. so we have a trump-era policy. biden wants to shift gears and do something different and people are saying, no, wait a minute, let s find a statutory reason they can t do it. the justices do a statutory interpretation argument, but they do also hold firm to this notion that administrations are allowed to change their policies when the white house changes hands, and that does trickle down. at least that notion of the ability of the president to change policy and to make that policy into action throughout
rights. that was news. we ll have more on this just ahead. we certainly will. at any moment, the supreme court will release its final two opinions of this term on the docket, two consequential cases, one involving immigration and the president s power to dictate u.s. foreign policy, the other on climate change, marking a decision on the most important environmental case in more than a decade. we ll bring you those both as soon as they re handed down. today also marks the end of one of the most monumental terms with the decision on abortion rights, overturning decades, decades of a constitutionally held right in this country and an opinion on gun control that has wide ranging consequences. today s cases will be the final two for justice briar brstephen breyer. ketanji brown jackson will be sworn in immediately to become justice jackson, the first black woman to serve on the supreme court. so let s begin with these two