The court revised its opinion in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, a 5-4 ruling released Thursday in which the court temporarily blocked an EPA policy requiring “upwind” states to reduce air pollution that travels down to “downwind” states and affects the air quality there.
Gorsuch—and his clerks, who would have helped prepare the opinion—referred five times in his opinion to “nitrous oxide,” which is a greenhouse gas that’s more commonly known as an anesthetic and referred to as “laughing gas.”
The opinion actually meant to refer to “nitrogen oxide,” an air pollutant that the EPA’s policy at issue was aimed at reducing.
The court issued a corrected opinion that fixed the error throughout the ruling, after the mistake gained traction on social media.
The mistake was seized on by critics of the court’s conservative majority, with writer Elie Mystal noting on X, “Remember folks, Neil Gorsuch thinks that he should have the final say on environmental regulations, not the experts at the EPA.”
Supreme Court Corrects EPA Opinion After Gorsuch Confuses Laughing Gas With…
The error came in an opinion blocking an EPA policy meant to improve air pollution.