The Supreme Court is considering the fate of Chevron deference, a 40-year legal principle that has shaped the role of government agencies. The outcome could affect medication approval, pollution regulation, and more
The Supreme Court is set to rule as soon as Wednesday on a seemingly tedious pair of cases that question who should pay for congressionally mandated observers on fishing boats: the owners of the boats or a federal agency. But far from being small fish, the opinions may rejigger the balance of power among the branches of government and
“Rolling back Chevron is going to create a huge paradigm shift in how the government works and even how Congress legislates,” says Andrew Twinamatsiko, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at Georgetown University. At the time, it was an unremarkable reminder of judicial restraint that had been the norm for a century, Doniger says. “It really wasn’t breaking new ground,” he says. “But it became a very concise restatement of that approach.” In the decades since the decision, the Chevron opinion has been cited more than 16,000 times in courts across the country.
Since the development of Chevron deference, Congress and federal agencies have settled into a pattern that works, experts say. Congress writes legislation—which sometimes remains in place for decades—with ambiguities, and the agencies that know the relevant topics better turn that legislation into meaningful and practical policies.
Regardless of whether Chevron is overturned or weakened, federal agencies will likely face a spike in lawsuits as adversaries feel out the boundaries of the Supreme Court’s decision, experts say. Challenges that succeed will force agencies to start fresh on a given issue after federal workers already spent years developing its related rule. Even unsuccessful challenges pull agency resources from other work, says Emily Hammond, a professor of law at the George Washington University.
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