Two liberal Supreme Court justices joined conservative Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion in a case involving energy corporation Chevron USA.
Liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor joined the court majority opinion delivered by Thomas. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s third liberal justice, did not join the opinion, but she filed an opinion concurring in judgment. There were no dissents in this case.
The case stemmed from lawsuits filed at the state level in 2013 by parishes in Louisiana against oil and gas companies under the State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act. The law enacted in 1978 prohibited certain uses of Louisiana’s coastal area, including oil production, without a permit.
An expert report filed by Plaquemines Parish “made clear” that it intended to challenge some defendants’ crude oil production during World War II, the court said. The report alleged that Chevron did not use steel tanks instead of earthen pits, should not have used vertical-drilling methods and failed to equip fields with sufficient roads, instead using canals.
Chevron removed the lawsuit under the federal officer removal statute, which authorizes removal of state court lawsuits against federal officers or persons “acting under” them “for or relating to any act under color of such office.” It argued the oil production challenged in the lawsuit was “for or relating to” Chevron’s wartime refining of crude oil into aviation gasoline for the U. S. military.
The court ruled that Chevron satisfied the “relating to” requirement of the federal officer removal statute.
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