Some corporate legal departments had been calling for relief from proposed Securities and Exchange Commission rules mandating climate-related disclosures. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court might have given it to them.

Legal experts say the Supreme Court's decision that day limiting the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions has the broader impact of narrowing federal agencies' regulatory authority more generally.

Even before the ruling, critics had argued the agency had gone overboard when it rolled out proposed rules in March requiring public companies to disclose their emissions—including, in some cases, those of their customers and suppliers.