SCOTUS Dials Back Chevron Deference In Loper Bright Opinion

On Friday, June 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. __ (2024), ushering in a new era of judicial review of agency action.

The Chevron doctrine, which was established by the Supreme Court in 1984, used a two-step process to determine whether an agency's statutory interpretation was to be afforded deference by the courts—(1) using traditional tools of statutory interpretation to determine if Congress clearly addressed the issue in the statute; and (2) determining whether the agency's interpretation of an ambiguous provision was reasonable. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984). For decades, the Supreme Court has slowly chipped away at the doctrine, imposing additional limits on when to employ it and when deference is warranted. Its recent opinion in Loper Bright took the final step and eliminated the agency deference afforded under Chevr