Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron Deference

In a 6-3 Decision, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding so-called “Chevron deference,” which gave federal agencies wide leeway in interpreting what the meaning of a given law was, from which they were empowered to create a broad swathe of regulations, un-legislated laws created from one original law.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority decision, declaring “Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, as the [Administrative Procedure Act] requires.” The three far-left judges, Sotomayor, Brown Jackson, and Kagan dissented from the majority view.

Excerpt from CBS News

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a landmark 40-year-old decision that gave federal agencies broad regulatory power, upending their authority to issue regulations unless Congress has spoken clearly.

The court split along ideological lines in the dispute, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the conservative majority. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson were in dissent. Kagan read portions of her dissent from the bench.

The court’s ruling in a pair of related cases is a significant victory for the conservative legal movement, which has long aimed to unwind or weaken the 1984 decision in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council. Critics of that landmark ruling, which involved a challenge to a regulation enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act, have said the so-called Chevron doctrine gives unelected federal bureaucrats too much power in crafting regulations that touch on major areas of American life, such as the workplace, the environment and health care.