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"This is the 23rd pending emergency application—and the third different EPA rule that applicants are currently asking the justices to block on the shadow docket," noted one legal expert.
Two dozen Republican-led states on Tuesday asked the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court to pause the Biden administration's rule intended to slash methane emissions by nearly 80% over the next decade through new requirements for the oil and gas industry.
Arizona's GOP-controlled legislature and 23 state attorneys general—led by Gentner Drummond, who attended the Oklahoma Gas Association's annual conference on Tuesday—filed the request for emergency action by the nation's highest court after launching the legal battle in March.
The Republican filers claimed in their application that their states "will suffer irreparable harm if this court does not grant a stay" halting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule, and the policy's "devastating consequences are contrary to the public interest."
Meanwhile, green groups have welcomed the rule but also pushed the Biden administration to go much further, arguing, as Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said in March, that "the best way to eliminate methane pollution... is to stop fossil fuel drilling, period. In the midst of a climate emergency, we need to take the actions necessary to stop pollution once and for all."
The GOP states' application details the long process that led to the EPA's latest rule on methane, which is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide for its first two decades in the atmosphere. As Courthouse New Service summarized Tuesday:
The EPA began regulating new oil and gas producers in 2016, but the Trump administration rescinded the regulations in 2020. President Joe Biden's EPA repealed the 2020 rules and proposed new standards that would not only reimpose the 2016 standards but also apply those regulations to existing oil and gas sources for the first time.
Biden's standards prohibit all flaring for certain wells, forcing any gas to be recovered, collected, and used for a beneficial purpose. Natural gas pumps will have a zero-emissions standard.
As CNN Supreme Court analyst and University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck noted, "This is the 23rd pending emergency application—and the third different EPA rule that applicants are currently asking the justices to block on the shadow docket."
"In all three of these cases, the *only* ruling by a lower court was a summary ruling by the D.C. Circuit denying emergency relief; there's been no other litigation," Vladeck explained on social media. "And in all three of those cases, those rulings came from unanimous *and* ideologically diverse D.C. Circuit panels."
In addition to Arizona and Oklahoma, the states behind the request are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority has a history of being hostile toward environmental regulations, including with its June ruling in Ohio v. EPA, which was about a policy designed to protect people downwind from smog-forming pollution.
Earthjustice senior vice president Sam Sankar warned at the time that "the court's order puts thousands of lives at risk, forces downwind states to regulate their industries more tightly, and tells big polluters that it's open season on our environmental laws."
"In a country awash in guns and ammo, where guns are the leading cause of deaths for kids, we don't need to further normalize the sale and promotion of these products," an expert said.
A Texas-based company has developed vending machines that sell bullets and installed them at a handful of grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, with plans for expansion into other states, according to news reports this week.
The machines, produced by American Rounds, based in the Dallas area, use artificial intelligence to verify the age of buyers, who must be 21 to purchase the shotgun, rifle, and handgun bullets on offer.
There are few federal regulations on the sale of ammunition, and only a small number of states have their own tougher laws.
The vending machines are "likely to stoke controversy," Newsweek reported, while Gizmodo called their spread a "questionable new trend." Social media users wrote that the idea of vending machines for bullets was "insane", "horrible," and "beyond sick."
"In some states, you can now walk into a grocery store and buy bullets from a vending machine as if you were ordering a candy bar or a soda," Gizmodo reported, though it explained that the process was "slightly more rigorous... than buying a Twix."
Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, expressed concern about the accessibility of the ammunition.
"In a country awash in guns and ammo, where guns are the leading cause of deaths for kids, we don't need to further normalize the sale and promotion of these products," Suplina told The Associated Press.
Milk, eggs and now bullets for sale in handful of US grocery stores with ammo vending machines https://t.co/wX5tGY7HM3
— Liz Szabo (@LizSzabo) July 10, 2024
The introduction of the vending machine comes as gun-control advocates increase their efforts to defeat the gun lobby. There were more than 500 shootings nationwide over the 4th of July weekend, according to Moms Demand Action.
Though Walmart, a major ammunition retailer, has put some restrictions on sales in the last ten years, thanks to public pressure that followed mass shootings, bullets remain widely available in the U.S.
"In most of the country it's harder to buy Sudafed than it is to buy ammunition," according to The Trace, which characterized federal law on ammunition sales as "next to nonexistent."
There were once stricter federal laws in place on ammunition sales but they were undone when Congress passed pro-gun legislation backed by the National Rifle Association in 1986.
One of the new vending machines was the source of controversy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last week.
"I got some calls about ammunition being sold in grocery stores, vending machines," Tuscaloosa Councilor Kip Tyner said during a city council meeting on July 2, according to ABC 33/40. "I mean, I thought it was a lie. I thought it was a joke, but it's not."
The vending machine in question was removed from a Fresh Value supermarket in Tuscaloosa the next day. The store manager said that the machine was removed due to lack of sales.
The American Rounds machines can currently be found at four locations in Oklahoma, one in Alabama, and one in Texas. The company has plans to install a machine in Buena Vista, Colorado, and already has more than 200 installation requests from stores in nine states, CEO Grant Magers told Newsweek. "And that number is growing daily," he said.
American Rounds' website says that "the future of ammo sales is here."
In Alabama you can purchase ammo from vending machines
The machines in Fresh Value stores in Tuscaloosa and Pell City use facial recognition for age and ID verification to streamline the process of purchasing firearm ammo. #2A
Developed by @americanrounds pic.twitter.com/xmzEAFSpCF
— Steve Gruber (@stevegrubershow) July 6, 2024
There are no limits to how much ammunition a customer can buy, other than the machine running out of stock, Newsweek reported. American Rounds is targeting small towns where ammunition might not be readily available. The machines are always set up inside of stores, Magers said.
The process of making the purchase, including the use of facial recognition software to check against the ID being used, can take one minute and a half, Magers told the AP.
"It's not just happening in Oklahoma; we're seeing it from Texas to West Virginia, from Florida to Idaho," said one church-state separation advocate.
Advocates for the separation of church and state said Thursday that they plan to take all necessary steps to stop Christian nationalists across the country "from trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families" after Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters became the latest right-wing leader to mandate Christian teachings in schools.
Walters announced Thursday that "immediate and strict compliance is expected" for a new policy mandating that public schools teach the Christian Bible as part of the state curriculum.
Including the religious text in class materials is necessary "to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system," said Walters. "We're talking about the Bible, one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country."
The announcement came days after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed into state law a new policy requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments by 2025.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) endorsed the policy on Wednesday, saying, "I think there's a number of states trying to look to do the same thing, and I don't think it's offensive in any way." Last weekend, former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also expressed support for the requirement, saying it could be "the first major step in the revival of religion, which is desperately needed in our country."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has launched a legal challenge against the Louisiana law, said Thursday that Walters' policy is "textbook Christian nationalism" and "a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students."
"This nation must recommit to our foundational principle of church-state separation before it's too late. Public education, religious freedom and democracy are all on the line."
"Public schools are not Sunday schools," said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. "Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference and is unfit for office."
"Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else's children," continued Laser. "Not on our watch. Americans United is ready to step in and protect all Oklahoma public school children and their families from constitutional violations of their religious freedom."
Laser noted that the organization is already challenging Walters and other Oklahoma officials who are pushing to open the first publicly funded religious charter school, which was blocked by the state Supreme Court this week.
That effort, Walters' announcement, and Louisiana's Ten Commandments law all illustrate that "Christian nationalism is on the march across this country," said Laser.
"It's not just happening in Oklahoma; we're seeing it from Texas to West Virginia, from Florida to Idaho," she said. "Christian nationalists and their lawmaker allies want to replace school counselors with religious chaplains; allow teachers and coaches to pray with students; teach Creationism in science classes; and ban books and censor curricula that feature LGBTQ+ people and racial and religious minorities."
"Americans United will do everything in our power to stop Christian nationalists like Ryan Walters from trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families," added Laser. "This nation must recommit to our foundational principle of church-state separation before it's too late. Public education, religious freedom and democracy are all on the line."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) also said it would take "any necessary steps" to stop Walters from imposing the Bible teaching requirement on Oklahoma educators.
"Walters' concern should be the fact that Oklahoma ranks 49th in education," said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "Maybe education would improve if Oklahoma's superintendent of education spent his time promoting education, instead of religion."