Columbus, OH – On Monday, The Buckeye Institute was joined by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in filing an amicus brief in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to abandon the Chevron doctrine, which compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s creative statutory reading of a law—beyond what Congress authorized.  

“For too long, unelected bureaucrats have been regulating our lives, claiming that they alone are the experts and no one—not even the courts—are competent to question their expertise,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court has the opportunity to rein in the power of these unelected officials and end Chevron deference once and for all.”

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—a Cause of Action Institute case—a group of herring fishermen from Cape May, New Jersey, have challenged whether the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) can force commercial fishermen to pay the salaries of government-mandated monitors—something Congress did not authorize when it passed the law governing fishery management in federal waters. 

In their brief, The Buckeye Institute and NFIB argue that Chevron deference has led to agency self-aggrandizement, legislative indifference, and judicial passivity. Tryon continued, “Courts in Ohio and other states have already abandoned Chevron deference, and the U.S. Supreme Court should do so too.”

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UPDATE: On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court abandoned the Chevron doctrine, writing, “The Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, and courts may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous; Chevron is overruled.”