There's been a lot of excitement about the U.S. Supreme Court as it wrapped up its 2014-15 session, and understandably so. On Friday, many people took to the streets in celebration when the High Court ruled that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states. In fact, that ruling was held up as a sign that the nine justices were, as a whole, becoming more liberal -- building upon two major decisions from the day before that upheld and arguably strengthened the Affordable Care Act and also reaffirmed the key federal fair-housing law. But on the whole, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts -- while occasionally expanding civil liberties on social issues or free-speech matters -- has been almost ruthlessly pro-business. It was this court, after all, which issued the Citizens United ruling that allowed corporations to sink unlimited amounts of so-called "dark money" into American elections. With that in mind, those of us who advocate on environmental issues are very wary when the Supreme Court wades into matters concerning issues such as regulating polluters -- and what happened this week was a stark reminder of exactly what we worry about. In gridlocked Washington, it's become very difficult for government to place meaningful ...
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