Just The News
The Supreme Court Friday issued a ruling that will limit federal agencies’ sweeping regulatory power. Libertarians and conservatives have hailed the decision as increasing individual liberty and reducing the power of bureaucrats over Americans’ lives.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices vacated a 1984 doctrine known as “Chevron deference,” which allows federal agencies broad latitude in interpreting laws when Congress hasn’t provided specific guidelines. Under the doctrine, if Congress has granted an agency the general authority to make rules with the force of law, courts generally defer to the agency’s implementation of that general authority…
Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow with the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute and publisher of JunkScience.com, said that, combined with the June 2022 decision in West Virginia v. EPA, federal agencies will only be able to do what Congress has authorized them to do.
In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not grant the EPA authority to regulate emissions from existing power plants based on their type of fuel. The decision invalidated former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
“If Congress writes vague laws, well, they can interpret them however they want. But then they’re going to be subject to whatever a judge decides. So it’s huge,” Milloy told Just the News…
However, Milloy said, the EPA is a “bully agency,” and it has issued rules that it knows exceeds any authority Congress has granted it, but it passes the rules anyways.
“These people are really rogue,” Milloy said.
