ANALYSIS: Twin Cases Show ‘Major Questions’ Is Far From Settled

A pair of conflicting rulings, issued in the same month from the same federal court but by different judges, illustrates the difficult road ahead for courts faced with “major questions” in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA.

I took a look at how these decisions in April—both addressing the Centers for Disease Control’s travel-related mask mandate—did or did not match up with the analytical process under the major questions doctrine that the Supreme Court ultimately brought into play two months later.

While it might seem that there’s no longer room for inconsistent results, ...