One Ballot After Another
Summary
UCLA law professor Rick Hasen discusses the Supreme Court’s rejection of Trump’s mail-in ballot restrictions, emphasizing the ruling’s protection of voting access and warning of post-election threats like ballot seizures. The episode then shifts to climate policy, where Earth Justice’s Sam Sankar analyzes the EPA’s repeal of power plant emissions rules and the Supreme Court’s upcoming environmental cases. Sankar traces the historical legal strategies used by the fossil fuel industry to undermine regulatory agencies and argues that the current deregulatory agenda relies on decades of judicia…
Topics discussed
Intro: Supreme Court blocks mail-in ballot restrictions
Guest intro: Rick Hasen on the 'Rug of Despair'
Explaining the USPS rule and its potential impact
Why the rule would have shut down mail voting nationwide
The 7-2 ruling and Justice Alito's dissent
Legal briefs and the 'equitable factors' analysis
Critique of the government's brief and Alito's dissent
Justice Gorsuch's potential vote and the Major Questions Doctrine
Future risks: Postal delays and voting safety
Election integrity threats: Cyber attacks and federal agents
Nightmare scenario: DOJ seizing ballots before certification
Trump's strategy to undermine election confidence
Advice for citizens: Voting and countering disinformation
Structural protections: Courts, states, and the public
Transition to climate: Intro of Sam Sankar
History of environmental deregulation and agency skepticism
EPA repeal of greenhouse gas rules for power plants
Preemption and the blocking of state climate action
Legal profession imbalance in environmental litigation
Standing doctrine and the 'Ballroom' case impact
Suncor/Exxon case: History and climate accountability
Why the Supreme Court is intervening early in Suncor
Guam case: Air Force explosives and NEPA violations
Why the Guam case was taken and legal strategies
Outro and Slate Plus promotion
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