Social Justice Tag: Nonviolence

October 2024

Articles from Mercy:

• Overturning the Chevron deference (Marianne Comfort; Institute Justice Team)
• Critical Considerations: Who are the Israeli settlers and what motivates them? (Karen Donahue, RSM)
• Assassination of Honduran water protector deeply grieves Sisters of Mercy (John Charles McAllister-Ashley; Institute Justice Team)

Overturning the Chevron deference

Marianne Comfort; Institute Justice Team

Environmentalists are holding their breath after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late June that courts, not federal agencies, get the final say in how laws should be implemented. They are concerned that the decision overturns a decades-old legal precedent that allowed federal agencies to interpret laws according to their expertise and scientific evidence. It will take years for the impact to become clear, but it could prompt far more legal challenges against regulations by agencies like the EPA and the Department of the Interior that have a huge role in addressing climate change.

The court’s ruling overturns what is known as the “Chevron deference,” after a 1984 Supreme Court decision that held that when Congress passes a law that lacks specificity, courts must give wide leeway to decisions made by the federal agencies charged with implementing that law.

While the recent decision applies to all federal agencies, environmentalists are especially concerned about the impact on climate legislation. That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency is facing a slew of lawsuits, most of them filed by Republican-led states and fossil fuel industries, that accuse the agency of overstepping its legal authority with regulations to address climate change, such as efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the court was only overturning Chevron, not all of the previous cases that relied upon it. But in new cases, including those making their way through the courts on President Biden’s climate policy, the Supreme Court has made clear that federal courts, not regulators, should decide what the law means.

But not all environmental groups are pessimistic. Evergreen, an organization founded to move climate policy forward, sees opportunities to close regulatory loopholes around reducing air and water pollution. If the courts want to follow the letter of the laws passed by Congress, they should do so evenly, including those that very clearly call for eliminating water pollution and for monitoring air pollution that harms communities. Neither of those requirements are being strictly followed by regulatory agencies.

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Critical Considerations

Who are the Israeli settlers and what motivates them?

Karen Donahue, RSM

While Israel’s assault on Gaza continues and has now extended to Lebanon, settler violence in the West Bank has also increased exponentially over the past year, perpetrated in large part by settlers. Who are the settlers? The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) has produced a documentary, Holy Redemption (53 minutes), that that looks at the settler movement and the critical role it plays in Israel’s ultimate goal of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state and driving the Palestinian people out of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

The documentary’s power rests in the testimonies of the settlers themselves. Videographers spoke with a broad range of people ranging from leaders of the movement, rank and file settlers, younger members of what is called the Hilltop Youth, Israeli soldiers currently serving and retired, and Israeli human rights lawyers. They also had unprecedented access to the settlements.

The settlers are motivated by a messianic belief that the land belongs to them because God gave it to Abraham and that by driving out the Palestinians, they are only doing God’s will. In an especially chilling scene, a woman who is a leader in the settler movement said that God gave the land between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers to Abraham (as recorded in the Book of Joshua). She was not fazed when the reporter pointed out that this land includes several other countries besides Israel.

Extremist settlers now hold positions in the Israeli government, including Cabinet posts. In a recent article published in Common Dreams, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs discusses the religious fundamentalism driving Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians. He notes that this fundamentalist religious mandate together with the backing of U.S. military power account for Israel’s brazenness.

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Assassination of Honduran water protector deeply grieves Sisters of Mercy

John Charles McAllister-Ashley; Institute Justice Team

The Sisters of Mercy have been accompanying water protectors in the Guapinol River region of Honduras. Juan Antonio López, a Honduran environmental activist and lay Catholic leader, was assassinated on Sept. 14, 2024 in the town of Tocoa after advocating against an iron oxide mine that is polluting local rivers.

Sister Mary Kay Dobrovolny, RSM said that López, just days before he was killed, had called for Fúnez, the Tocoa mayor, to resign because of his links to drug traffickers. Dobrovolny wrote in a statement, “Too many people have died striving to protect the land that they love.” She also said that, while visiting Honduras with a solidarity delegation organized by the Share Foundation in 2021, she witnessed the assassination of a man in front of his wife and children. “The wailing of intense grief and shock of his family is a sound that I will never forget,” she wrote. “I join my voice with the loved ones of Juan López and all environmental activists who say the killing must end,” Dobrovolny, the congregation’s new membership ministry coordinator, wrote.

This killing is part of a broader pattern of violence against environmental activists in Honduras that calls for an international investigation. López’s death reflects the dangers faced by environmental activists in Latin America, where many are targeted by commercial and political interests. We invite you to offer prayer and to read the words of the ILT on their statement. You can learn more about Juan López’s senseless death here.

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