{"id":336250,"date":"2024-07-12T08:49:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336250"},"modified":"2024-07-12T08:49:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:49:44","slug":"court-deals-body-blow-to-unchecked-bureaucratic-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336250","title":{"rendered":"Court deals body blow to unchecked bureaucratic power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By striking down a 40-year-old legal precedent that allowed unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucrats to interpret ambiguously worded statutes as they see fit, the Supreme Court has jerked the chain of an administrative state that had become accustomed to riding roughshod over the Constitution\u2019s Separation of Powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high court\u2019s 6-3 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo <\/em>jettisoned what was known as Chevron <\/em>deference, which required courts to defer to federal agencies\u2019 interpretation of unclear statutory text if the interpretation is merely \u201creasonable.\u201d  (Chevron<\/em> refers to the 1984 Supreme Court opinion in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By ceding such vast authority to the permanent bureaucracy, Chevron<\/em> deference helped stack the deck against anyone who had run afoul of the policy preferences of ever more powerful federal agencies. Now, federal judges can no longer defer to entrenched bureaucrats to determine what Congress intended in crafting a law; the courts themselves must make that call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing<\/a> for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that a doctrine that allows bureaucrats to make such distinctions \u201cis misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also true that bureaucrats in regulatory agencies are not disinterested parties.  They may be faceless, but they have a stake in expanding the agency\u2019s power where they spend their professional careers and will find it hard to resist the temptation to interpret a statute in such a way that it further empowers that agency.  Furthermore, people who choose careers in federal regulatory agencies are likely to be ideologically predisposed to support rules and regulations that strengthen the hand of the regulatory state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concurring with the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas added<\/a> that \u201cby tying a judge\u2019s hands, Chevron <\/em>prevents the Judiciary from serving as a check on the Executive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Neil Gorsuch noted<\/a> that Chevron<\/em> \u201chas led us to a strange place. One where \u2026 the scales of justice are tilted systematically in favor of the most powerful, where legal demands can change with every election, even though the laws do not, and where the people are left to guess about their legal rights and responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gorsuch suggests, the real-world consequences of a doctrine that allowed agencies to regulate vast swaths of American life unincumbered by checks on their authority are profound. In an amicus brief<\/a> urging an end to Chevron <\/em>deference, the Washington Legal Foundation and the Independent Women\u2019s Law Center underscored the harm the doctrine wrought throughout society.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecently, agencies have tried to rewrite the federal student loan program, attempted to bar landlords from collecting rent on their properties, and forced workers nationwide to get a vaccine,\u201d the brief stated.  \u201cEach time a regulatory agency far exceeded its statutory power because it felt emboldened by Chevron<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing the blow the court\u2019s ruling had dealt the regulatory state, Justice Elena Kagan was scathing in her dissent, saying<\/a> the majority had replaced a rule of \u201cjudicial humility\u201d with one of \u201cjudicial hubris.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn one fell swoop, the majority today gives itself exclusive power over every open issue \u2014 no matter how expertise-driven or policy-laden \u2014 involving the meaning of regulatory law,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe court has substituted its own judgment on workplace health for that of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration; its own judgment on climate change for that of the Environmental Protection Agency; and its own judgment on student loans for that of the Department of Education,\u201d Kagan added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting weighty constitutional issues aside for a moment, the underlying assumption in Kagan\u2019s remarks is that \u201cexpertise-driven\u201d wisdom resides in the corridors of federal agencies. Recent experience calls that into question. From public health agencies\u2019 response to COVID-19 with lockdowns, school closures, and mandates for masks and vaccines to climate regulators\u2019 micromanaging people\u2019s selection of household appliances and personal transportation, \u201cexperts\u201d are rapidly falling out of favor with much of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mighty edifice that was Chevron<\/em> deference was brought low by a small, slimy fish: the herring. A rule issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service charging commercial herring vessels operating in the North Atlantic up to $700 daily per vessel to monitor herring catches threatened to bankrupt a New Jersey fishing operation. The fishermen sued, saying NMFS had no authority to impose such a charge. That authority was Chevron<\/em> deference. Expressing his view on Chevron<\/em> a year ahead of the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling, Justice Gorsuch stated<\/a>: \u201cAt this late hour, the whole project deserves a tombstone no one can miss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That tombstone now stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared in DC Journal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By striking down a 40-year-old legal precedent that allowed unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucrats to interpret ambiguously worded statutes as they see fit, the Supreme Court has jerked the chain of an administrative state that had become accustomed to riding roughshod over the Constitution\u2019s Separation of Powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":336252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820003,691829654,691818670],"class_list":{"0":"post-336250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-chevron","9":"tag-constitutions-separation-of-powers","10":"tag-supreme-court","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0supreme-court-building.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pto","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":335149,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335149","url_meta":{"origin":336250,"position":0},"title":"REP. HARRIET HAGEMAN: The Supreme Court\u2019s Latest Chevron Ruling Is a Big Win for America \u2014 What\u2019s Next?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"For two generations the Chevron Doctrine has given federal agencies an unfair advantage, outsized authority and unconstitutional power in interpreting statutes and issuing rules. 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