U.S. Supreme Court takes up fishermen's fight over US conservation funding

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether the government can require commercial fishermen to help fund a program monitoring herring catches off New England's coast in a case that could undercut the regulatory power of federal agencies.

The justices took up an appeal by New Jersey-based fishing companies of a lower court's ruling in favor of the U.S. government in a challenge to a conservation program overseen by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The program was begun in 2020 under former President Donald Trump and is being defended by President Joe Biden's administration.

The case is the latest bid asking the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to rein in the authority of federal agencies. The companies are asking the Supreme Court to overturn its own decades-old precedent calling for judges to defer to federal agency interpretation of U.S. laws, a doctrine called "Chevron deference."