The U.S. Supreme Court just delivered a hammer blow to California’s climate radicals, handing down a 7-2 decision that clears the way for energy producers to challenge the state’s aggressive electric vehicle (EV) mandates. And in a surprise twist, even one of the Court’s liberal justices jumped ship, siding against the climate justice crowd.
At the center of the case is California’s push to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and require automakers to hit strict electric vehicle production quotas—all part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pipe dream to make the Golden State “carbon neutral” within a decade. But on Friday, that dream got a legal reality check.
Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh slammed the state’s backdoor effort to impose nationwide environmental policy through a loophole in the Clean Air Act. “The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” he wrote.
In other words, if the state is going to regulate an entire industry into submission, that industry has every right to fight back in court.
The case was brought by American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which argued that California’s regulations go far beyond what federal law permits. The EPA, of course, tried to shield California by granting them a waiver—but even that move is under scrutiny, especially since, as Kavanaugh pointed out, the EPA has flip-flopped on its legal justification.
AFPM CEO Chet Thompson applauded the ruling, saying, “The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates. California’s EV mandates are unlawful and bad for our country.”
The timing couldn’t be worse for Governor Newsom, who’s building his 2028 presidential campaign on a platform of green extremism. Earlier this month, President Trump signed three resolutions gutting much of California’s climate agenda, undercutting its ability to enforce sweeping mandates that Congress never approved.
Bottom line: California’s attempt to dictate national policy through environmental overreach just got stopped dead in its tracks. And for once, the Supreme Court did what it’s supposed to—protect Americans from bureaucratic tyranny disguised as climate virtue.
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