Earlier this summer, The United States Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturning a 40-year legal precedent known as the Chevron Deference ruling. Unless your workplace or casual circles involve administrative attorneys or federal policymakers, you might not be familiar with the term. Unfortunately, the decision to overturn Chevron Deference could pose a serious threat to fundamental protections for people and the planet in the years ahead.
A brief history of Chevron Deference
The jurisprudential doctrine of Chevron Deference was established in 1984 by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a case in which NRDC was trying to get the Reagan administration’s EPA to enforce pollution controls at industrial facilities under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Ultimately, the Supreme Court sided with Chevron, ruling that judicial deference [to government agencies] is appropriate where the agency’s answer was not unreasonable, so long as Congress had not spoken directly to the precise issue at question.
While disappointing at the time for NRDC, the ruling established a nonpartisan principle, giving government agencies and their subject matter experts leeway to make their own decisions on how to implement laws in situations where the laws were unclear, regardless of whether the administration in power happened to be conservative or liberal.
Over the course of more than 16,000 legal cases, Chevron Deference has come to serve as a crucial legal underpinning of federal administrative law, protecting people in virtually every facet of American life, including pollution limits, labor protections, workplace safety, transportation, social services, education, tax collection, drug prices and food safety.
Individual judges now have more sway than regulators and subject matter experts
The overturning of Chevron Deference effectively means that the courts now view themselves as better-suited than public administrators and issue experts to determine how laws should be implemented.
In her dissent ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Justice Elena Kagan wrote,“In one fell swoop, the majority today gives itself exclusive power over every open issue — no matter how expertise-driven or policy-laden — involving the meaning of regulatory law. As if it did not have enough on its plate, the majority turns itself into the country’s administrative czar.”
The ruling opens the door for extremist judges to make rulings along ideological lines rather than deferring to agency administrators and issue experts. There are about 850 judges and 10 districts in the lower federal courts with an increasingly wide range of ideologies, without practical experience in the day-to-day implementation of every complex regulation under the purview of federal agencies.
More legal challenges ahead?
Longtime opponents of Chevron Deference saw the ruling as a major step in rectifying an instrument of government overreach. Environmental and social justice advocates worry the decision could open the floodgates to legal challenges from polluters and corporations aiming to weaken federal protections for workers, social institutions and the environment. Bedrock protections won by decades of advocacy from the environmental, labor and other movements could be weakened with serious consequences for a generation of Americans that has never known life without them.
What can we do? Double down on local action.
Here in Northwest Washington and around the nation, the path to defending environmental and social protections looks a lot like the path that won them in the first place: Intersectional and interconnected grassroots advocacy. When people recognize that the guardrails against unbridled corporate profiteering are connected across social and environmental justice issues, they advocate more effectively for better protections.
For instance, we recognize that farmworkers and other outdoor workers need guaranteed protections from deadly heat waves and days with dangerous air quality due to wildfire smoke. We also know that advocating for swift climate action is essential to mitigating just how severe climate impacts like heat, drought and wildfire become in the years ahead.
Intersectional advocacy starts at the local level today as it always has. With federal regulations in jeopardy regardless of the outcome of November’s elections, the work of local and regional advocacy organizations is now more important than ever. If you’re concerned about an America with fewer protections for the lands, waters and people, now is time to invest in local advocacy and watchdog groups.
These organizations are often a community’s first line of defense. Policy experts employed by regional advocacy organizations play a vital role in representing environmental and community interests during rulemaking processes at all levels of government. As was the case before the overturning of Chevron Deference, the effectiveness of legislation passed into law will still ultimately be determined by how well corporate interests are kept in check during complex rule-making processes that dictate how a law will actually be implemented in the real world.
Community-based nonprofits can connect you with ways to make your voice heard in ways that can make a tangible difference where you live. Local and regional victories are less cumbersome to secure than national ones, and they have a way of rippling out into state-level and even federal policies. A small group of passionate, local advocates that support each other across issues as neighbors is a bigger part of building a better nation than one might think.
As was the case before the overturning of Chevron Deference, the effectiveness of legislation passed into law will still ultimately be determined by how well corporate interests are kept in check during complex rule-making processes that dictate how a law will actually be implemented in the real world.
Join RE Sources today to protect the lands, waters and climate while building just and thriving communities here in Northwest Washington. If you value our work, please donate so it can continue (Giving monthly gives advocacy groups the consistency needed to build effective, long-term campaigns). Recruit your friends to do the same. While you’re at it, explore what local nonprofits are doing across intersecting issues like housing, health, labor, social justice, and childcare.