Within hours of yesterday's monumental Supreme Court ruling upholding the 2010 health care reform law, environmental law scholars were already pondering whether it could have an impact on the Clean Air Act.
Their answer? A qualified "yes."
They focused on two elements of the decision.
...Some see similarities between the Medicaid provisions in the health care law and how the federal government interacts with states over of their role in enforcing the Clean Air Act via so-called state implementation plans, known in U.S. EPA lingo as SIPs.
The federal government has in the past sought to withhold highway funding unless a state plays ball, although disputes have always been settled, according to environmental law experts.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the Medicaid section of the law was unconstitutional if existing funding was withdrawn if a state didn't want to expand its Medicaid program as part of the 2010 reforms.
"Congress has no authority to order the states to regulate according to its instructions," he wrote. "Congress may offer the states grants and require the states to comply with accompanying conditions, but the states must have a genuine choice whether to accept the offer."
Congress cannot "penalize states that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding," Roberts concluded.