"For decades, the court’s decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council directed judges to defer to the reasonable interpretations of federal agency officials in cases that involve how to administer ambiguous federal laws."
"The pair of cases before the court were brought by Atlantic herring fishermen in New Jersey and Rhode Island who challenged federal rules initiated by the Trump administration requiring them to pay for at-sea monitors.
Both lawsuits were backed by conservative legal organizations — the Cause of Action Institute and New Civil Liberties Alliance — that have received millions of dollars from the Koch network."
The #ChevronDeference says a Federal agency can interpret a rule, in case of ambiguity: the courts "defer" to the experts at the agencies.
Now:
The TRUMP administration designed a federal rule.
Fishermen challenged that rule in court.
Money from the Koch network supported that challenge.
And now the conservative-dominated #SCOTUS has used that to overturn the #ChevronDeference
"In recent years, the Chevron doctrine has become a central target of rightwing groups that blame it for what they see as a proliferation of government regulations executed by unelected bureaucrats in the so-called “deep state”. A key group behind the supreme court challenge, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, was founded with seed money from the oil billionaire Charles Koch."
"In a raft of amicus briefs to the court, alliances of scientists, environmentalists and labor organizations warned that undoing Chevron would roll back a regulatory framework that for four decades has improved the health, safety and welfare of Americans. It would also unravel efforts to protect the environment and fight the climate crisis."
"By overturning the #ChevronDeference, the #SupremeCourt has declared war on an administrative state that touches everything from net neutrality to climate change."
Very good explainer on what happened, and what the decision means not only for #climate, but also net neutrality, regulating Big Tech, worker visas and other immigration issues, labor rights, the right to repair, copyright, and patent law.
And in an even more shitty and immediately devastating decision, they made it OK for communities to pass laws that make it illegal for people... other human beings ... to sleep outside.
We are the shithole country that they kept warning us about.
Fact is, we don't have to comply with SCOTUS' rulings. The government doesn't have to comply with SCOTUS' rulings. SCOTUS has no enforcement agency.
AND, there is precedent for non compliance; many historical examples in which government chose not to comply with a SCOTUS ruling. Hell, just this January the governor of TX refused to comply with a SCOTUS ruling.
"The EPA under Ronald Reagan sought to loosen the standard for calculating air pollution emissions from industrial facilities, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, sued to argue that the EPA didn’t have the authority to offer a new interpretation of the Clean Air Act. NRDC won at first, but Chevron appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which sided with Reagan’s EPA."
[Edit to add: Because the news only wants to talk about Biden's age, it's missing this bombshell.]
Elie Mystal gives the long view of what the Supreme Court is doing.
A tough read. And you should read it.
We Just Witnessed the Biggest Supreme Court Power Grab Since 1803
"The court has given itself nearly unlimited power over the administrative state, putting everything from environmental protections to workers’ rights at risk."