The Supreme Court has ruled against the federal government in West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency, arguing that the EPA does not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. This is a catastrophic ruling for the fight against climate change, and its implications go much, much further. With this decision, the court has affirmed radical legal arguments that effectively destroy the executive branch as we know it.

And with this decision, Joe Biden is set to preside over a failed presidency of an entirely different sort — one that sees not only the end of his political ambitions, but of his very office. There is a way out. The court has given Biden a license to defend the executive branch, and one that would defang the right’s anti-democratic judicial agenda. But will he use it?