Friday, June 28, 2024

Chevron Ends

 The Supreme Court finally did away with Chevron. The Court notes:

Rather than safeguarding reliance interests, Chevron affirmatively destroys them. Under Chevron, a  tatutory ambiguity, no matter why it is there, becomes a license authorizing an agency to change positions as much as it likes, with “[u]nexplained inconsistency” being “at most . . . a reason for holding an interpretation to be . . . arbitrary and capricious.” Brand X, 545 U. S., at 981. But statutory ambiguity, as we have explained, is not a reliable indicator of actual delegation of discretionary authority to agencies.Chevron thus allows agencies to change course even when Congress has given them no power to do so. By its sheer breadth, Chevron fosters unwarranted instability in the law, leaving those attempting to plan around agency action in an eternal fog of uncertainty. Chevron accordingly has undermined the very “rule of law” values that stare decisis exists to secure.

 To understand this issue consider a simple case of two parties entering to a contract. There comes a point when the parties disagree as to the meaning os a clause. It may have been poorly crafted by their attorney, usually the case. Normally the parties have agreed to either litigation in a certain court or arbitration under certain rules. 

However Chevron does not do this. Congress writes a law, and as is often the case it contains ambiguous or meaningless terms. Thus the parties, industry or individuals being one and the Executive being the other, would have gone to Court. A non involved third party. But Chevron said no, the Executive can decide whatever it means and the other party has to assent. There is no right to a third party remediation. Chevron created monsters in the Executive branch. Any un-elected bureaucrat can decide whatever they want and the citizens must agree of suffer.

This decision will have massive positive effects on industry. In my experience and in my opinion the US is the most regulated country I have ever operated in. Every action I took as a business was regulated down to the toilet tissues!