How Brett Kavanaugh could remodel the environmental law of the Supreme Court

His reasoning ultimately persuaded the Conservative Supreme Court justices, who subsequently overturned the lower court and voted 5-4 to invalidate parts of the EPA's licensing program that Judge Kavanaugh found disturbing.

The court paid attention to Kavanaugh's views on administrative law, "said Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor at Case Western University. "He lives and breathes that kind of thing, he's been doing it for a long time, and that kind of experience is important when dealing with complex regulatory issues."

In other cases, however, the Judge Kavanaugh went even further than the conservative wing of the Supreme Court was ready to leave. In E.M.E. Homer City Generation c. Environmental Protection Agency, he wrote a majority opinion for D.C. circuit court canceling a federal program to regulate air pollution that crossed the state borders. The Supreme Court later took the case and overturned 6-2, with Judge Kennedy and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. voting to maintain the pollution rule.

This case, along with several others, led some legal experts to conclude that Judge Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would push the Supreme Court to be much more hostile to federal regulations. Such a change could allow the Trump administration to roll back environmental policies of the Obama era in the coming years.

"This will be a very different tribunal in the future," said Robert Percival, professor of environmental law. at the University of Maryland. "Kennedy had at least an open mind on this issue, but if he is replaced by Kavanaugh, it will really be a tough time for the environment right for the rest of my life."

Other experts point out, however, that Judge Kavanaugh has not always voted reflexively against environmental regulations. In 2013, for example, he voted to maintain an E.P.A. litigation. decision to retroactively oppose a mining project in West Virginia. And in a 2014 advisory, Justice Kavanaugh ruled in favor of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that had criticized an industry-friendly provision in a federal rule regarding emissions from cement kilns

. should be celebrated, "said Mr. Lazarus, but, he added," I do not think you can look at all these cases and say that it is someone who is hostile to environmental legislation. . "