In its current session, the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the federal government's authority to enforce the Clean Water Act.
The mainstream media have been assiduous in explaining to us that the case involved knotty issues of constitutional limits to regulatory authority, the extent to which Congress may delegate powers to agencies, Fifth Amendment takings and so forth. A more daring analysis might have suggested that the decision demonstrated that the Republican-led court, reflecting the GOP's traditional hatred of regulation, was attempting to dismantle what Steve Bannon called "the administrative state." But even that fails to convey the true significance of the ruling.
