Refrigerant ruling over AIM Act could tests limits of EPA authority

OPINION: Should a federal agency have the power to take and grant market share across a multibillion-dollar market for reasons of its own choosing? Should an executive agency have the unfettered ability to pick winners and losers for a market that supplies products to nearly every building and vehicle? If someone you have never had the opportunity to vote for has the power to make substantive laws that take away or limit your rights to give them to others — maybe in the name of “equity” — is that consistent with liberty? America’s Founders didn’t think so, and neither does Choice Refrigerants, a small business in Georgia that makes refrigerants used in refrigerators, air conditioners and other cooling machines. Choice Refrigerants has filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to take up its case and confirm that Congress gave away its rights-affecting legislative power and violated the nondelegation doctrine when it passed the American Innovation in Manufacturing Act of 2020. The nondelegation doctrine theoretically prevents Congress from divesting itself of legislative power, but in practice, it has been a dead letter for roughly 90 years. Recently, several justices have evinced an interest in resuscitating the doctrine