Court Decision

The Court gives more power to the courts:

Why it matters: The landmark 6-3 ruling along ideological lines overturns the court's 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine. It could make it harder for executive agencies to tackle a wide array of policy areas, including environmental and health regulations and labor and employment laws. Driving the news: Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the opinion of the court, argued Chevron "defies the command of" the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal administrative agencies. He said it "requires a court to ignore, not follow, 'the reading the court would have reached had it exercised its independent judgment as required by the APA.'" Further, he said it "is misguided" because "agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do." Roberts noted the court's decision did not call into question prior cases that relied on Chevron, including holdings pertaining to the Clean Air Act, because they "are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology."

Let the courts do their job...