The Media and Democracy Project joins United for Democracy coalition in call on Congress to act on Supreme Court

Congress should act to protect the administrative agencies' ability to function before the Supreme Court undermines them.

We have joined the United for Democracy coalition (UfD) in calling for Congress to act on the lawless Supreme Court as we wait for it to issue a decision on two cases: Relentless v. Dept of Commerce and Loper Bright v. Raimondo. Those two cases threaten to further undermine our democracy by gutting the federal agencies that create protections for the public. The letter, signed by more than 90 grassroots groups was released today. Demos has written an excellent policy brief about the cases.

As our UfD colleagues noted:

In Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court are threatening to overturn 40 years of legal precedent to give themselves the power to rewrite policy decisions enacted by federal agencies.
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A decision empowering the Supreme Court with more decision-making power over policy could:

• Give Supreme Court justices the ability to set drug safety standards — impacting which medications we have access to.

• Empower the Supreme Court to dictate environmental policy rather than deferring to scientists and experts at the EPA.

• Put Supreme Court justices in charge of evaluating worker safety standards.

• Enable Supreme Court justices to decide who should get Social Security benefits.

This is an unprecedented attack on our government.The conservative super-majority, and their Federalist Society intellectual compatriots, believe that the President and the judiciary should have unfettered power. Why do they believe in these ideas about Presidential power, related to their 'unitary executive' theories? Because regulation — that is, protecting the public from the very wealthy and powerful — is impossible if occasional Republican presidents can effectively tear down any protection, any regulatory rule, when they are in office.

The Media and Democracy Project is concerned about these cases because media policy — structuring markets so that robust journalism and healthy information environments supporting a free marketplace of ideas —  depends on Congress and on well-functioning, independent, regulatory agencies. Net neutrality, fair use of the airwaves, tax credits for news outlets, preventing Big Cable consolidation, and the security of your smart home all depend on regulation and executive branch agencies. If this radical SCOTUS blows up our government protections, our media will suffer too. We stand with all our partners in the UfD coalition on the broader issues as well. These cases are vitally important, and Congres should use every tool at its disposal to rein in this runaway Court.