Headline Roundup • June 29th, 2024
SCOTUS Curbs Power of Federal Agencies, Scrapping 40-Year-Old Precedent
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the long-standing “Chevron” doctrine, curbing the power of federal agencies by empowering federal judges to question more of their policy decisions.
For Context: In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council that judges should defer to the reasonable interpretations of federal agencies when federal laws are ambiguous. According to The New York Times (Lean Left bias), Chevron has been cited in 70 Supreme Court decisions and 17,000 lower court decisions.
Majority Opinion: On Friday, the court’s six conservative justices joined to overrule Chevron, with Chief Justice John Roberts citing the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) requirement that “courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.” Thus, courts cannot defer to agencies simply because a statute is ambiguous. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch wrote separate concurring opinions.
Dissenting Opinion: Joined by the other two liberal justices, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that “between courts and agencies, Congress would usually think agencies the better choice to resolve the ambiguities and fill the gaps in regulatory statutes. Because agencies are ‘experts in the field.’” Now, Kagan said, the court’s conservative majority “gives courts the power to make all manner of scientific and technical judgments.”
How the Media Covered It: Coverage often hyped up the impact of the decision; Axios (Lean Left bias) called it “seismic.” While some on the left said the precedent was “targeted by conservatives,” Fox News (Right bias) stood out by saying the Supreme Court simply “sided with fishermen” against “the administrative state.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Friday disrupted the balance of power in Washington, D.C., by overturning a 40-year-old precedent protecting federal agencies’ work.
The precedent, called the Chevron doctrine, instructed judges across the country to defer to federal agencies’ interpretation of the laws passed by Congress even when the agencies’ rules had no clear basis in the written text.
Friday’s ruling puts the onus on Congress to pass clearer, more specific policies, and gives individual Americans, as well as companies or religious organizations, more power to challenge the federal rules they take...
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images
On Friday, the Supreme Court overturned a long-standing legal doctrine in the US, making a transformative ruling that could hamper federal agencies’ ability to regulate all kinds of industry. Six Republican-appointed justices voted to overturn the doctrine, called Chevron deference, a decision that could affect everything from pollution limits to consumer protections in the US.
Chevron deference allows courts to defer to federal agencies when there are disputes over how to interpret ambiguous language in legislation passed by Congress. That’s supposed to lead to more informed decisions by leaning on...
The Supreme Court on Friday dramatically clawed back power from federal regulators by overturning decades of precedent that had been set in the 1984 Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council case.
In a 6-3 decision that again split along ideological lines, the high court ripped up the Chevron precedent, which called for judicial deference to agencies in situations where the law is unclear.
As a result, it will become much easier for the court system to overrule regulations and for judges to issue their best interpretation of the law.
“Courts...
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