The membership did change. Thus if a suit is lost against the epa, an appeal that goes to the Supremes wont matter. It would take a majority vote and since they do not in fact vote based on law, but rather ideology. A tie would leave the lost suit intact. The current configuration leaves a tie in a hyper partisan case the outcome. Vice versa a lower court blocking the epa action would hold as well.

Both of those are moot if a democrat installs the next justice, as they would then crown the epa the winner. A suit in this case will take years to get that far anyway.

Not a political post. Explaining the mechanics of the system.