By: Jonathan H. Adler
Forty years ago, perhaps unwittingly, the Supreme Court instructed lower courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes. In the years since, lower courts heeded this instruction perhaps all too well, leading to concerns courts were abdicating their responsibility to interpret laws and facilitating agency aggrandizement. Last week, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court said enough was enough. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a six-justice majority, put an end to so-called Chevron deference.