Supporters of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, the Denver Federal Appeals Court judge say he’s the kind of judge who interprets the law without trying to legislate from the bench.
But what kind of judge is he when it comes to the environment? To energy issues? What do we know about the Colorado native who lives in Boulder and is the kind of conservative that Democrats in Congress will fight.
Judge Gorsuch is known for his stand in upholding the religious freedom rights of Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor in a fight over Obamacare.
A ruling from 2015 in Colorado might show that Gorsuch could be favorable toward environmental laws, according to a report by the Internet website Heavy.com.
In the ruling, Gorsuch upheld Colorado’s renewable energy law, allowing it to remain in place and ruling that it did not violate the Constitution. The law was one that required utilities to get 30 percent of the electricity they sold to consumers from renewable resources. The utilities challenged the law, claiming the free market should decide the source of the electrical power. They claimed it also violated the Commerce Clause and hurt out-of-state businesses including coal producers.
“To be sure, fossil fuel producers—–will be hurt. But as far as we know, all fossil fuel producers in the area served by the grid will be hurt equally and all renewable energy producers in the area will be helped equally. If there’s any disproportionate adverse effect felt by out-of-state producers or any disproportionate advantage enjoyed by in-state producers, it hasn’t been explained to this court,” write Judge Gorsuch.
The Judge even said if rates go up, Colorado voters had approved the mandate, indicating they were “happy to bear” the higher costs. While environmental groups hailed the decision calling it a “good day for renewable energy in Colorado,” others still wonder about the Judge because of the way his late mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford ran the EPA when she was administrator in the the Reagan administration.
Recall that she tried to cut the EPA budget by more than 45 percent and ran into a buzz saw of opposition. She promoted voluntary compliance over strict regulations and consequently, the number of cases filed against alleged polluters dropped during the two years she ran the EPA. It was in 1982 when Anne Gorsuch Burford refused to release documents to Congress after her agency was accused of mishandling $1.6 billion in a toxic waste fund. She was found in contempt of Congress and later resigned.
In another case, Judge Gorsuch was part of a unanimous three-judge panel that upheld a Colorado law requiring retailers who don’t have physical addresses in the state to notify customers what they owe in taxes. It was a case called Direct Marketing Association Inc. v. Brohl.
“If anything by asking us to strike down Colorado’s law, out-of-state mail order and internet retailers don’t seek comparable treatment to their in-state brick-and-mortar rivals, they seek more favorable treatment a competitive advantage, a sort of judicially sponsored arbitrage opportunity or ‘tax shelter’,” wrote Gorsuch in the ruling.
The internet business case focused on a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that barred states from requiring online retailers to charge sales tax. Ever since, states like Oklahoma and Colorado have lost revenue from customers and complained about it. Some customers said they had no idea they owe anything.