In the wake of the Supreme Court's West Virginia v. EPA decision in June, prominent commentators complained that Congress is too broken to solve major problems, and thus, the executive branch must take action—even if it's unlawful. The passage of the Respect for Marriage Act is an important reminder that Congress can still play its constitutionally assigned role of legislating in response to Supreme Court decisions.
West Virginia v. EPA held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacked the statutory authority to enact the Clean Power Plan, a policy aimed at reducing U.S. emissions of global warming gasses. Several opinion pieces following the decision took no apparent issue with its statutory analysis but claimed that the Supreme Court nonetheless erred because Congress is no longer capable of taking on complex problems like climate change.
