SCOTUS Today: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Chevron is dead. With Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 6 Justices (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) dumped the 1984 decision. For those keeping count, that means Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented.

“Chevron has proved to be fundamentally misguided,” the majority writes. Moreover, “Experience has also shown that Chevron is unworkable. The defining feature of its framework is the identification of statutory ambiguity, which requires deference at the doctrine’s second step. But the concept of ambiguity has always evaded meaningful definition.”

“Four decades after its inception, Chevron has thus become an impediment, rather than an aid, to accomplishing the basic judicial task of ‘say[ing] what the law is.'”

And so,

“Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, as the APA requires. Careful attention to the judgment of the Executive Branch may help inform that inquiry. And when a particular statute delegates authority to an agency consistent with constitutional limits, courts must respect the delegation, while ensuring that the agency acts within it. But courts need not and under the APA may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.”

Admimm (did I just invent the coolest new word or what?) law scholars will surely be offering more nuanced thoughts about what the end of Chevron means for immigration. In the meantime, I’ll be updating my slides. What I will miss most is the perky NYU Chevron Two Step video.

-KitJ