Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is stepping aside from an upcoming case about environmental regulation over an apparent undisclosed conflict.
On December 10, the court will wade into a legal battle over a proposed railway project in rural Utah, the Uinta Basin Rail. The Supreme Court has to decide the scope of environmental review required by the government for such projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Critics of Gorsuch pushed for his recusal because of his ties to billionaire Philip Anschutz, whom Gorsuch represented as a corporate lawyer in the 2000s.
The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, concerns whether the National Environmental Policy Act "requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority."
Anschutz's company, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, filed a brief in the case arguing for a limited interpretation of NEPA.
"Because NEPA applies to every major federal action—including the authorizations Anschutz needs to develop federal oil-and-gas reserves—far more is at stake in this case than the 88-mile rail line in rural Utah," the company wrote.
A letter from a court clerk said that Gorsuch "has determined that he will not continue to participate in this case."
The proposed 88-mile Utah rail line would connect the oil-rich Uinta Basin with the national rail network.
The project has backing from seven eastern Utah counties and was approved by the Surface Transportation Board, but a lower court struck it down, finding the environmental review didn't go far enough.
Gorsuch's letter did not provide an explanation for his recusal. But the letter cited a code of conduct that the court adopted in 2023 after outrage over gifts that conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas received from billionaires.
Democrats have complained the code is not enforceable, and they have called on Congress to impose strict rules requiring recusal in certain situations.
Republicans have dismissed the pressure on the court as a partisan attempt to discredit and weaken the conservative majority that was solidified during President Trump's first term. Gorsuch was Trump's first appointee.
After Gorsuch made public his decision to recuse himself from the railroad case, Democratic congressman Hank Johnson (GA) took a victory lap and suggested, without evidence, that the court is in the pocket of billionaire benefactors.
"I think it is essential to maintaining the public's respect in the integrity of the Court, and I applaud Justice Gorsuch for doing the right and honorable thing," Johnson said.
"It is important that the Court show the public that it is not in the pocket of billionaire benefactors."
