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Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

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Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#741

Congress can actually legislate the right of agencies to interpret the gaps in the laws back into effect - by passing a law that explicitly gives agencies this power. Just like congress can legislate abortion laws rather than leaving it to judicial precedence. Fundamentally there’s nothing wrong with the position of supreme court to push the responsibility of lawmaking back on congress.

I liked this section of Justice Gorsuch's concurrence: > How bad is the problem? Take just one example. Brand X concerned a law regulating broadband internet services. There, the Court upheld an agency rule adopted by the administration of President George W. Bush because it was premised on a “reasonable” interpretation of the statute. Later, President Barack Obama’s administration rescinded the rule and replaced it…

But fundamentally, how is this different than what the Supreme Court does? The Supreme Court interprets the constitution and its meaning as it relates to whether or not a law is constitutional. The overturning of Roe v Wade is the direct result of the current court saying 'actually, the way we previously interpreted the constitution was wrong'.

We've gone through significant uncertainty and convulsive change as a result of the Supreme Court throwing out decades of precedence. This isn't to say this is always a bad thing, but the reasons for their past few decisions do not pass muster.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Congress skirted their duties for 40 years. Delegation dates back to (at least) the early 1900s: > Since 1935, the Court has not struck down a delegation to an administrative agency.15 Rather, the Court has approved, without deviation, Congress's ability to delegate power under broad standards.16 The Court has upheld, for example, delegations to administrative agencies to determine excessive profits during wartime,…

This is not about delegation. This is about interpretation of the limits of delegated power. Under Chevron the executive agencies decided that without check. Before Chevron and after Raimondo it's the courts that decide. The 40 years of Chevron were an aberration.

> The 40 years of Chevron were an aberration.

The Chevron ruling was codifying what was already happening for decades:

> When a challenge to an agency construction of a statutory provision, fairly conceptualized, really centers on the wisdom of the agency's policy, rather than whether it is a reasonable choice within a gap left open by Congress, the challenge must fail. In such a case, federal judges—who have no constituency—have a duty to respect legitimate policy choices made by those who do. The responsibilities for assessing the wisdom of such policy choices and resolving the struggle between competing views of the public interest are not judicial ones: "Our Constitution vests such responsibilities in the political branches."

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_U.S.A.,_Inc._v._Natura...

There is plenty of oversight in interpretation and Congress does not need to micromanage interpretation or implementation. Delegation as a principle of government pre-dates the formation of the US with Ministers of the Crown, and was continued post-formation as that's why there are Secretarys of Department X/Y/Z or Directors of Agency A/B/C.

The People (through their representative in Congress) are fine with agencies doing the interpretation. Those agencies are headed by an Executive of The People (President), and are run by administrator who are People-approved (through Congressional hearings and Senate approvals). The Legislative branch can dial up and dial down the flexibility of interpretation any time they want through Acts that change how the department/agency involved works, or through altering leadership (Secretarys, Directors) of the agencies.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#743
post #720

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I'm from, our "supreme court" can overthrow congress legislation for not following the constitution. Is this the case here AND is this the case in the US (generally speaking)?

Yes, that's exactly how it works. The US Supreme Court can rule a law unconstitutional, and that's that.

[deleted]

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#744

This is a complete disaster. The ramifications will be felt for decades. Now businesses must factor in the uncertainty of any random person launching a lawsuit that causes a local court to reverse a federal agency policy. Huge potential impacts to product / revenue, not just legal fees to fight everything. And immeasurable impacts of cowing all bold business decisions to avoid the ire of any person or group, no matte…

> Now businesses must factor in the uncertainty of any random person launching a lawsuit that causes a local court to reverse a federal agency policy. Huge potential impacts to product / revenue, not just legal fees to fight everything

Businesses already have to deal with frequent litigation, including class-action lawsuits even in areas that overlap with regulatory agencies.

Quite to the contrary of what you are suggesting, reversing Chevron doctrine will allow the courts to develop a body of solid precedent surrounding these areas of law, and create a more stable legal framework, rather than the status quo of opaque, politicized agencies having the power to re-interpret their authority and change the regulatory environment at their own prerogative -- stare decisis doesn't apply to executive agencies, but it certainly does apply to the courts.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#745
post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The court decided this on statutory grounds because that's what this court likes to do: base decisions on the narrowest grounds possible. But it mentioned Marbury quite prominently and it's pretty clear that the court will not sustain a law that codifies Chevron.

sorry, can someone explain this to someone who gave up on the article at the first bullet point, nor had enough sleep (and so is too lazy to look up everything) thanks!

Long ago Congress passed laws delegating a lot of rulemaking authority to the executive branch, the idea being that Congresspersons and their staff aren't deep-knowledge experts in most fields, and a lot of detailed rulemaking is best left to non-partisan career government employees (which, however, are usually guided by partisan political appointees, unfortunately). This is potentially dicey where the constitution is concerned: one of the foundational principles of the US constitution is separation of powers, and giving the executive branch what is essentially legislative power is maybe not in line with that.

But Congress did it anyway, and the SCOTUS has over the years upheld it. There was a landmark court case involving Chevron (the oil company). SCOTUS ruled there saying that the executive branch agencies responsible for rulemaking are experts in their fields, and we should mostly defer to them when their position seems reasonable, and when Congress hasn't passed a law that contradicts what they want to do.

Marbury is a much older case, that made precedent the idea that courts have the ability to strike down laws that they believe violate the constitution.

The current conservative-leaning SCOTUS is skeptical of what conservatives call the "administrative state" (basically: rulemaking done by the executive branch). They seem to not be a big fan of "Chevron deference", and are fully willing to exercise their Marbury-affirmed power to strike down executive actions that they don't believe are constitutional, or don't believe directly stem from laws Congress has passed.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#746
post #99

I'm impressed that they can so easily dispose of 40 years of law making by Congress that assumed that agencies would interpret the statutes and make rules for regulating their area of authority. Now Congress is going to have to specify every possible consequence of laws in the statutes, otherwise a judge will decide. So agencies will not have any power to actually regulate. Awesome logic work, but terrible legal thin…

> I'm impressed that they can so easily dispose of 40 years of law making by Congress that assumed that agencies would interpret the statutes and make rules for regulating their area of authority.

I'm impressed that Congress had the audacity 40 years ago to attempt to take judicial authority away from its constitutional locus in the courts and re-assign it to executive branch agencies, expecting them to be exercise reliable oversight over their own authority.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#747
The best argument for this is the "separation of powers" one.

In the system of Thursday, regulatory agencies can be "both judge, jury and executioner", ordering people to do whatever they want, since that's how they choose to interpret their mandate.

Power like this can and will be abused, even if it's true that the agency has the best expertise in the area.

It also makes it very dangerous for those who are abused to complain publicly, since they can arbitrarily be found in violation of the law as retribution.

This is no way to live, and the system of Monday should be better, even if it may be confused and cumbersome for a few years.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#748
post #99

I'm impressed that they can so easily dispose of 40 years of law making by Congress that assumed that agencies would interpret the statutes and make rules for regulating their area of authority. Now Congress is going to have to specify every possible consequence of laws in the statutes, otherwise a judge will decide. So agencies will not have any power to actually regulate. Awesome logic work, but terrible legal thin…

> So agencies will not have any power to actually regulate.

And that is a bad thing? If it is, I'll take it. The agencies have been ineffective at their stated missions. They have been revolving door power grabs since the end of WW2. You know, that time when we let all those "former" Nazis into prominent roles of government agencies?

It's not like the EPA stopped PFAS from contaminating water all over Earth. Or microplastics being embedded in the penile tissue of most men...Among the other "miracles of modern science". The EPA is too busy going after small landowners doing water management.

And if agencies are so wonderful. Why don't we have a Department of Peace & a Department of Prosperity for All? So the agencies cannot make up their own laws anymore? Cry me a PFAS laden river.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#749
post #99

I'm impressed that they can so easily dispose of 40 years of law making by Congress that assumed that agencies would interpret the statutes and make rules for regulating their area of authority. Now Congress is going to have to specify every possible consequence of laws in the statutes, otherwise a judge will decide. So agencies will not have any power to actually regulate. Awesome logic work, but terrible legal thin…

Combined with yesterday’s ruling on administrative courts, this amounts to a massive increase in the role of the federal judiciary in the execution of government action. By 2040 the normal procedure every April will be, rather than filing a tax return, filing a suit in federal court disputing the right of the IRS to determine whether your income is actually ‘income’. Eighty federalist society AI lawbots will automati…

> Combined with yesterday’s ruling on administrative courts, this amounts to a massive increase in the role of the federal judiciary in the execution of government action.

Sounds great. How we got to the point where executive-branch agencies were making rules with the force of law, binding upon the public with no judicial oversight, is a mystery to me, but it's good to see that the courts are taking their responsibilities seriously again, and restoring some measure of checks and balances.

Re: Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

#750

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The court decided this on statutory grounds because that's what this court likes to do: base decisions on the narrowest grounds possible. But it mentioned Marbury quite prominently and it's pretty clear that the court will not sustain a law that codifies Chevron.

Can court override the power of congress to put Chevron into law? Have there been instances where court struck down a law passed by congress before?

If they believe Chevron is unconstitutional, sure. And there's certainly an argument for it on separation-of-powers grounds.
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