What #SCOTUS just did to #broadband, the #RightToRepair, the #environment, and more
By overturning Chevron, the Supreme Court has declared war on an administrative state that touches everything from net neutrality to climate change.
By Verge Staff
Jun 28, 2024
"Since the New Deal era, the bulk of the functioning US government is the administrative state — think the acronym soup of agencies like the #EPA, #FCC, #FTC, #FDA, and so on. Even when Capitol Hill is not mired in deep dysfunction, the speed at which Congress and the courts operate no longer seems suitable for modern life. Both industry and ordinary people look to the administrative state, rather than legislators, for an immediate answer to their problems. And since 1984, the administrative state largely ran on one Supreme Court precedent: #ChevronUSA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (#NRDC).
"That decision has now been overturned. Admin law is not always interesting, but the simple fact is when it comes to the day-to-day, agencies are the most impactful part of the federal government. No single policy writer at The Verge can fully articulate the impact of Friday’s Supreme Court decision and how profound its effects will be. The administrative state touches everything around us: net neutrality, climate change, #CleanAir and water, and what scant #ConsumerProtections we have.
"While the practice had been in place for decades before, it came to be known as Chevron deference after a 1984 case: Chevron v. NRDC. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Chevron, allowing the #RonaldReagan administration’s #industry-friendly Environmental Protection Agency to stick with a lax interpretation of the #CleanAirAct.
"Over the years, Chevron deference has enabled federal agencies to tackle all sorts of issues that legislators have yet to cover — from addressing greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change to regulating broadband access. As the conservative legal movement to disempower the administrative state grew, Chevron deference became — in certain circles — shorthand for #GovernmentOverreach.
"Before its decision to overturn Chevron, the Supreme Court had already dealt a blow to federal agencies’ regulatory authority by strengthening the 'major questions' doctrine in its 2022 decision in West Virginia v. EPA. According to the major questions doctrine, a federal agency shouldn’t have the leeway to craft regulation on an issue of major national significance if Congress hasn’t explicitly allowed it to do so in legislation.
"The same bloc of six #conservative justices that formed the majority in West Virginia v. EPA also overturned the longstanding precedent of #RoeVsWade — an even older case than Chevron — in the same month. When two cases calling for an end to Chevron deference worked their way up to the Supreme Court this year, the writing was on the wall — and once again, those same six justices overturned Chevron.
Impacts:
- #NetNeutrality
- The #environment and efforts to fight #ClimateChange
- Regulating #BigTech
- #TechWorkers on #visas and #immigration law
- #Labor and #WorkersRights
- The right to repair, #copyright, #PatentLaw, and the Apple Watch ban
https://www.theverge.com/24188365/chevron-scotus-net-neutrality-dmca-visa-fcc-ftc-epa
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