Overturning Chevron Is a Major Victory
How important is the decision issued in June by the Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and its companion case, Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce? The Claremont Institute s Theo Wold observes that this victory against the administrative state is merely incremental. Although valuable, it will not remake the administrative state or solve the post-New Deal power imbalance in the federal government.
Being the CEO of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which submitted an amicus in Loper Bright and litigated its companion case, Relentless, I might be expected to take issue with any such modest view of the outcome. That s true, but not because Wold is far from the mark.
Chevron is just one of the deference doctrines protecting the power of administrative agencies. So, of course, the Loper Bright / Relentless decision is just an incremental step in a longer struggle. As an old friend who feared I was too impatient to take down the administrative state once reminded me, Rome wasn t burned in a day.
But that s not to say our victory was unimportant. On the contrary, if we consider Loper Bright / Relentless together with other victories in the past year or so, we can see something transformative not the end of the administrative state, but the beginning of its end.
Phillip Hamburger and the NCLA deserve some sort of medal for their service on this. God bless them.