Supreme Court Opinion Significantly Limits Federal Agency Rulemaking Authority
By
Texas Food and Fuel Association
7/1/2024
BREAKING NEWS from The Energy Marketers of America
June 28, 2024
Supreme Court Opinion Significantly Limits Federal Agency Rulemaking Authority
Friday, June 28, 2024 - The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling today that significantly weakens federal agencies rulemaking authority. The Court overturned a landmark 40-year-old opinion that gave federal agencies broad regulatory powers to issue regulations in the absence of specific directions by Congress. The now overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council opinion instructed judges to defer to agency expertise in cases where the underlying law is ambiguous. The U.S. EPA often used this judicial deference to expand its authority in areas, such as climate change, air and water pollution that Congress never specifically authorized.
Federal agencies are tasked to fill in the gaps of broad laws passed by Congress. Agencies fill in those gaps through the rulemaking process. Under Chevron, judges were instructed to defer to federal agency expertise and their interpretation of the underlying authorizing statute during the rulemaking process so long as it was reasonably within the scope of Congressional intent. This left federal agencies with broad regulatory authority to interpret laws and write regulations that often went far beyond what was envisioned by Congress.
Under the new ruling, judges will no longer defer to federal agency expertise. Instead, they will substitute their own best interpretation of the law as passed by Congress. As a result, it will now be much easier for courts to overturn regulations governing environmental, labor, tax, transportation and other policy areas administered by federal agencies. The ruling is a monumental blow to agency rulemaking authority and is expected to lead to a number of legal challenges to existing regulations.
