Pallone Blasts SCOTUS Decision Gutting Chevron Deference & Upending 40 Years of Precedent
“With this ruling, the Supreme Court has just granted itself complete authority to make complex regulatory decisions in every policy sphere despite lacking the expertise of our federal agencies”
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement today following the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce which dismantles 40 years of precedent by revoking the doctrine of Chevron deference:
“This decision is a naked power grab by a radical, right-wing Supreme Court that has proven dismissive of precedent and divorced from reality. Let’s be clear: this ruling is the result of years of coordinated, calculated efforts by Republicans and corporations to ensure the Court serves their own special interests – not the law, and certainly not the interests of the American people. The Court has just thrust Americans deeper into uncertainty and put a bullseye on more of our bedrock rights and protections, including the very ones that protect our health and safety.
“With this ruling, the Supreme Court has just granted itself complete authority to make complex regulatory decisions in every policy sphere despite lacking the expertise of our federal agencies – turning itself, as Justice Kagan wrote, ‘into the country’s administrative czar.’ The hubris woven throughout today’s decision is appalling. Time and again, this Court has stripped Americans of their most basic rights, protections, and stability, and today’s ruling is another disastrous decision. The Court, Republicans, and their corporate interest allies will have to answer for the consequences – among them being the ongoing erosion of the Supreme Court’s credibility.”
Chevron deference refers to the legal doctrine – in place for four decades since the Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council – that allowed Federal agency experts to interpret the most highly specific and technical areas of law when those laws were ambiguous or silent on the matter. Until now, Chevron deference supported a regulatory system that prevented the courts from usurping the authority granted to the executive branch by Congress by requiring judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable understandings of the law they administer.
###