U.S. Supreme Court overturns Chevron Doctrine

Courts Federal Issues U.S. Supreme Court Chevron Enforcement

On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court entered an opinion overturning the Chevron Deference Doctrine, a test used by federal regulators to interpret ambiguous language in existing law in rulemaking and enforcement actions.

The 6-3 ruling is a result of a combined two cases, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Commerce, that challenged a ruling that leveraged the Chevron Deference Doctrine. The court held that according to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), courts must “exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority,” stipulating that courts cannot reference an agency’s interpretation of law they claim is ambiguous. The court decided that “a statutory ambiguity does not necessarily reflect a congressional intent that an agency, as opposed to a court, resolve the resulting interpretive question” and that Chevron’s presumptions were “misguided.” Instead of binding a court, the court held, agencies’ interpretations should provide informative expertise. However, the court emphasized that prior decisions relying on Chevron were unaffected, stating “we do not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework. The holdings of those cases that specific agency actions are lawful … are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology

For a more thorough treatment of this important case, please read our recent Orrick Insight here.