Supreme Court DACA Ruling Could Sway Environmental Permits’ Fate

The Supreme Court’s surprise rebuke last week of the Trump administration’s bid to rescind the Obama-era DACA immigration program may have unexpected impacts on environmental litigation over fossil fuel development, pipelines, and other projects.

The justices ruled June 18 that Trump officials violated key principles of administrative law when they opted to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Legal scholars seized on one aspect of the majority opinion to question whether lower courts are likely to continue a practice—known in legalese as “remand without vacatur"—of leaving flawed government decisions intact while giving agencies a second chance to explain ...