O.H. SKINNER: Will Joe Biden Slip Through One Last Dark Money Giveaway In His Closing Days?

President Joe Biden has been on a roll in his final days in office, slipping prized handouts to various ideological allies.

This is after he has already made a name for himself, and his solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, with the number of backflips his Department of Justice did at the Supreme Court to side with his political backers — donors and left-wing trial lawyers — in high-profile cases with billions on the line.

Now, with less than two weeks to go before the curtain falls on the Biden administration, these story lines are colliding as Biden and his allies try to slip in one more giveaway for political allies by holding off Supreme Court scrutiny — and Trump administration involvement — in a public nuisance lawsuit out of Hawaii.

The case is called Sunoco LP v. City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii.  It is part of an effort by local Honolulu authorities to use public nuisance legal claims to impose liability and new restrictions on a bevy of energy companies for the supposed effects of global climate change.

Through the case, Honolulu seeks to curtail global energy production and unlock billions of dollars, money they will use to pay for their own green priorities and force fundamental changes to what everyday Americans can buy — an EV in every garage, and gas stoves over the cliff, as it were.

The left has been pushing such public nuisance lawsuits for years through a campaign involving public officials, trial lawyers and advocacy groups. And this campaign is all backed by massive sums of liberal money.

The Supreme Court last year asked for the Biden Department of Justice, through the solicitor general, to state its views on whether the Supreme Court should take up this public nuisance lawsuit out of Hawaii. The order calling for Solicitor General Prelogar’s views was noteworthy as a sign the court might consider the merits of the Honolulu case.

This put the Biden administration in the position of choosing between representing the interests of liberal money backers or following the type of straight legal analysis that you would hope to see a United States solicitor general follow, which would’ve shown that the case easily meets the thresholds for Supreme Court review.

Things got even more interesting when, after the Supreme Court solicited the government’s views, former President Donald Trump won the election and lined up a new solicitor general for the Department of Justice. So, if the Supreme Court takes the case, Biden’s backers won’t have allies in the Department of Justice to provide a helping hand.

It is not surprising, with the Trump Department of Justice waiting in the wings, that Biden’s minions sided with the backers pushing climate change cases, urging the Supreme Court to look no more at the case and let the left’s best weapon for reshaping our society survive unscathed.

But that is not the final word. The final word will come from the Supreme Court, as they soon will decide if they want to subject the Honolulu case to full review, or perhaps wait and see if the incoming Trump Department of Justice team may have a different perspective.

Waiting for the Trump Department of Justice to come in would make a lot of sense, as it seems like the Supreme Court could benefit from a cleaner read on this case — and the legal issues posed by an attempt to impose national policy in countless areas through one city using public nuisance law — without the influence of political considerations that hang over this case for Biden and his team.

That might especially be appealing in a case with such massive implications for consumers, as well as key sovereignty questions that go well beyond any single industry or product.

Make no mistake, this is a big deal and the stakes are high. If Biden slips this one past the Supreme Court for his allies, consumers face a future with less products on the shelves and a lot of their lives being governed from hallways in Honolulu, Portland and Oakland, with billions of dollars flowing into the hands of liberal activists.

So, with mere days left in the Biden administration, here is hoping that the administration does not manage to slip yet another political giveaway through and the Supreme Court sees the games that are being played.

At a minimum, pay attention this week as the Supreme Court considers this case, because it matters for your family, above and beyond the question of whether Biden should get any more chances to slip things through in his final days in office.

O.H. Skinner is executive director of Alliance for Consumers and the former solicitor general of Arizona.

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