186

The Plan to Incapacitate the Federal Government: Without Chevron, the executive branch will struggle to do even the most basic work (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Last Wednesday, over the course of three and a half hours of arguments, the conservative and liberal justices on the U.S. Supreme Court jousted over whether to overrule a 40-year-old case called Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council.

The Chevron case is famous among lawyers—it’s among the most cited cases of all time—because it established the principle that the courts should defer to federal agencies when they interpret the law in the course of carrying out their duties. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Chevron shields the executive branch from overly intrusive court review, giving it the flexibility to do its work.

But the case is under threat. Conservative justices on the Supreme Court want to dismantle Chevron, believing that deference is improper because courts—not federal agencies—ought to say what the law is. They may have the votes to scrap the case outright; if not, they will almost certainly narrow its scope.

...

Wherever the truth lies, ditching Chevron is only one part of the conservative legal movement’s ever more successful campaign to intensify judicial controls over the administrative state. In recent years, the justices have produced a new “major questions doctrine” to restrain agencies that do things of great economic or political significance. They have toyed with telling Congress that some of its delegations are so broad as to be unconstitutional. They are exploring new limits on the types of cases that agencies can resolve. And they seem to have upped the intensity with which they review whether agency decisions are “arbitrary.”

Non-paywall link

top 24 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] Spottso@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago

Court ruling on whether courts should have more power. There goes checks and balances

[-] lemmy@linkopath.com 23 points 9 months ago

Don't forget, that SCOTUS also gave themselves the right of judicial review out of thin air.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

Isn't the line "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it"? The Executive Branch is literally the enforcement arm of the Federal Government. I think they kinda have the upper hand vs. the Judicial Branch.

Just make a decision and enforce it. Let the Judicial Branch tie itself in knots worrying about it.

[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 38 points 9 months ago

Chevron deference is absolutely critical for a functioning government in the modern era, which is precisely why the republicans hate it

[-] cyd@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago

Fun fact: Chevron deference emerged from the Reagan era conservative movement, and was originally used to justify giving federal agencies leeway to waive regulations as part of the Reaganite push for freer markets.

Neil Gorsuch's mom ran the EPA during this time and was part of this Chevron deference-enablef deregulatory push.

[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago

The reason why conservatives shifted on Chevron is because they no longer believe in governance and aren’t willing to pretend. They used to pretend they cared about governing. Now they acknowledge they only care about outcomes in the end justify the means sense

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 21 points 9 months ago

Headline is NOT about Chevron the company, but Chevron the legal decision.

Shit title

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 17 points 9 months ago

Well, the legal paradigm is called 'Chevron deference'.

[-] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

The percentage of the United States population, who have a working understanding of the Supreme Court decision Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. Is pretty small.

People should explain what’s going on

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 8 points 9 months ago

It's originally about Chevron the company lol. The original Supreme Court case that set the modern precedent was Chevron (the company) vs. Natural Resources Defense Council. That case allowed the EPA to do things like determine safe levels for things like lead in water, particulate matter in air, etc. without explicitly having a whole ass court argument over each and every number that they wanted to set.

Overturning the original Chevron case will literally dismantle the entire regulatory process in the United States.

[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today -2 points 9 months ago

There is room to overhaul Chevron, reducing the degree of deference, without completely reversing it. Chevron isn't particularly great law when it comes to a corrupt or incompetent eexecutive agency like Ajit Pai's FCC.

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You may wish to fix your typo: Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council - Natural not National

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_U.S.A.%2C_Inc._v._Natural_Resources_Defense_Council%2C_Inc.

this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024

186 points (98.4% liked)

politics

19097 readers

4791 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News