BY RHODA WILSON ON JUNE 29, 2024

The Supreme Court on Friday curtailed the power of US federal agencies to regulate the environment, public health and other fundamental aspects of American life. It effectively overturns a long-standing precedent known as the Chevron deference.

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The Chevron deference empowered agencies to interpret ambiguous laws as it states that courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of a law, as long as that interpretation is reasonable. It was established by the Supreme Court’s landmark 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. And represented a victory for the Reagan administration and a loss for environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (“NRDC”).

Under President Ronald Reagan, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a rule that allowed manufacturing plants to install or modify one piece of equipment without obtaining a federal permit. Environmental groups challenged the rule, saying it violated the Clean Air Act and would cause more air pollution. But the 1984 unanimous Supreme Court decision said that the court should defer to the EPA’s reading of the Clean Air Act and other agencies’ interpretations of other statutes.

The Chevron ruling became a major precedent once it filtered through the lower courts, and it eventually gave future administrations more power to issue stronger environmental rules than those of the Reagan era.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court corrected this decades-long federal overreach on Friday in the landmark case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturning the Chevron doctrine and delivering a huge victory to all Americans being suffocated by crushing government regulation.

Loper Bright was brought to the Court by fishermen challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (“NOAA”) at-sea monitor programme. This programme required fishermen to host a government employee on their vessel to monitor compliance with federal regulations, all at the fishermen’s expense, which amounted to a whopping $700 per day.

These charges, not even authorised by federal law, could add up to thousands of dollars over a multi-day voyage. Failure to comply meant that the fishermen, who have risked their lives every day to deliver food to the tables of American families across the country, would be unable to fish and provide for their own families.

In short, the government told small business owners – without any basis in law – that they had to accommodate a so-called expert or lose their livelihoods.

“The Chevron doctrine gave NOAA this power by requiring judges to be deferential to federal agencies’ interpretation of statutes when the law is ‘ambiguous’. It granted federal bureaucrats, who are not elected nor accountable to the public, the power to make up and interpret their own policies. Unchecked for decades, Chevron deference allowed the administrative state to morph into a quasi-fourth branch of government,” Fox News reported.

Ironically, many environmental groups supported retaining Chevron in recent months, even though the original 1984 decision handed them a defeat. Two heavyweights in the environmental movement – the Environmental Defense Fund and the NRDC – both submitted amicus briefs urging the justices not to overturn Chevron.

David Doniger, senior strategic director of the climate and clean energy program at NRDC, said the ruling released on Friday could prevent agencies from using older environmental laws to tackle newer environmental problems – such as climate change – as they arise.

Still, President Biden’s signature climate law gave the EPA more authority to curb planet-warming emissions, Doniger said. For the first time, the climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, defined greenhouse gases as air pollutants that the EPA can regulate under the Clean Air Act.

“Under the Constitution, lawmaking authority rests with Congress, not the administrative state. If those laws inflict harm, the Constitution affords Americans the means to voice their grievances. Forty years ago, the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision upset that balance,” Fox News wrote.

Adding, “[On Friday], the balance has been restored, and more importantly, the government’s accountability to the people has been restored. It is now up to Congress to see this judicial victory through.”

In a memo released on Monday, staff for the House Republican Study Committee wrote that Friday’s ruling could prompt Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to intensify their oversight of the Biden administration’s environmental rules.

“If Chevron is rolled back or overturned, this will be a landmark decision which could open the door to Congress … rolling back Biden’s woke and weaponised administrative agenda,” the memo says.

Sources for this article include:

What to know about the Supreme Court decision limiting environmental rules, The Washington Post, 28 June 2024
Supreme Court just defeated Big Government. It’s up to Congress to make it stick, Fox News, 28 June 2024

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