Leaked memos reveal how Supreme Court steamrolled Obama climate plan in 2016 showdown
State of emergency decision from the Supreme Court to block the former president Barack Obama‘s signature clean energy initiative in 2016 followed the leak of a series of internal memos that revealed a fight among the justices along ideological lines over whether to intervene.
A rare look at the Supreme Court’s internal notes New York TimesIt showed liberal justices backtracking as Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by former President George W. Bush, urged the Supreme Court to block Obama’s efforts.
Newly released memos show that Roberts and conservatives on the court are concerned not just with Obama’s policy but also with the possibility that the Clean Power Plan could reshape the energy sector before the justices fully examine whether it is legal.
“Unless separated, the Clean Power Plan will cause (and is causing) a significant and irreversible realignment of the local power sector before this court has the opportunity to review its legality,” Roberts wrote in one of the memos published by the New York Times on Friday.
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Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts attends President Donald Trump’s speech at the US Capitol
(Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Supreme Court’s communications team on Monday for comment on the leaks.
Roberts’ move came as the justices were considering what was then considered an unusual request from red states and outside groups in an emergency brief, sometimes called a “shadow brief,” to halt Obama-era regulation aimed at reducing carbon emissions before lower courts weighed in fully; It was a step that liberal justices warned would break with longstanding practice.
Emergency filing allows plaintiffs to bypass typical court proceedings and seek immediate relief from the Supreme Court if lower courts block them through restraining orders or preliminary injunctions.
Clean Power Plan Would Include Obama Environmental Protection Agency organizer Coal, oil and gas facilities under the Clean Air Act. Unless the Supreme Court steps in, Roberts wrote, “both states and the private sector will suffer irreparable harm from a rule that, in my view, is unlikely to survive.”
On another note, Obama-appointed Justice Elena Kagan disagreed, saying “the unique nature of the relief sought in these applications really gives me pause.”
Former President Barack Obama during a campaign event on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, issued a statement concurring with Roberts on the same day as Kagan.
“Failure to comply with this rule threatens to nullify our ability to provide meaningful judicial review and, by extension, our institutional legitimacy,” Alito wrote.
Within days, the justices temporarily blocked Obama’s Clean Power Plan 5-4 along ideological lines, effectively dealing a fatal blow as Democrats would lose the White House later that year. The New York Times stated that the Obama White House considered the decision a minor obstacle at the time, but “behind closed doors, officials were astonished at how quickly the court intervened.”
The back-and-forth on the briefs during the brief period from late January 2016 to Feb. 9, when the summary judgment was issued, showed how quickly the justices moved to weigh in on a major presidential action.
The anonymous leak of the memos to the New York Times was the second leak of classified material after Dobbs’ opinion leak in 2022, writing that it was “clearly designed to injure some of its members,” Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote in an op-ed.
“For an institution that prides itself on its secrecy and insularity, the court appears increasingly porous and biased regarding these leaks,” Turley wrote.
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Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks at the 2025 Supreme Court Fellows Program at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2025.
The New York Times report highlighted that legal experts have long viewed the Clean Power Plan decision as one of the first examples of the Supreme Court using the emergency writ to limit executive authority over national policy.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, was among the most vocal dissenters on emergency matters during President Donald Trump’s second term; because the president often takes advantage of fast-paced decision making. Jackson is sometimes joined in dissenting opinions by his two liberal colleagues, Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and emergencies are often split 6-3 in Trump’s favor.
Jackson last week expressed his complaints In a different forum, “scratch papers” undermined the high court’s purpose by rushing urgent case decisions during a talk at Yale Law School.
“Given the real-world realities that a stay request asks the court to consider, a court’s stay orders can sometimes seem deeply unreasonable,” Jackson said. “We cannot expect the public to trust our judicial system if we continually green light harmful actions without clear explanation.”
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legal experts attributed Increased activity on the emergency docket has led to an increase in the number of presidents attempting to shape national policy through executive orders.
“[An increase in emergency motions] “This coincides with the rise of executive orders and other forms of unilateral executive action as the primary form of lawmaking in our country, along with the demise of Congress, and that has created enormous challenges for the court,” attorney Kannon Shanmugam told a Federalist Society panel last fall.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Obama’s office for comment.
Original article source: Leaked memos reveal how Supreme Court evaporated Obama’s climate plan in 2016 showdown
