The Supreme Court issued a flurry of truly dangerous rulings at the end of its 2023/2024 term.

There was the decision in Donald Trump’s immunity case, of course, which got the most attention. And I’ve been emailing you about some of the other deeply misguided rulings the court handed down.

One tremendously bad Supreme Court ruling I haven’t emailed you about — until now — is the decision in a case called Corner Post. (Supreme Court cases get their names from one or more of the entities involved — in this case a truck stop in North Dakota.)

This one is as counter to common sense as it gets.

• For decades, it has been settled that legal challenges to federal regulations — like protections for consumers, workers, and the environment — must be filed within six years of a regulation being issued (or sometimes sooner, depending on the particular law).

• After those first six years, corporations (or others) who want to challenge a regulation are out of time.

• But in Corner Post, the Supreme Court ruled that the clock doesn’t start when a regulation is issued — instead, the clock starts when a person or business is first impacted by a regulation.

• So, for example, a corporation formed this year would have until 2030 to challenge any regulation it wants — even a regulation that has been in effect for decades.

• But of course it’s easy to form a new corporation — including if you do so purely for the purpose of challenging an old regulation.

The Supreme Court has made it possible for Big Business to challenge longstanding regulations — like rules that keep prescription medicines safe, rules that protect consumers from Big Bank rip-offs, rules that safeguard civil rights, and much, much more — at any point in time, even when a rule has been in effect for decades.

The good news is that legislation was just introduced in Congress that would override the Supreme Court’s disastrous Corner Post ruling and restore time limits for challenges to critical regulations.

But it’s up to all of us to make sure members of Congress hear loud and clear that the American people expect them to take action against yet another pro-corporate, anti-public Supreme Court ruling.

Join Public Citizen in urging Congress to pass the Corner Post Reversal Act as soon as possible.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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