Since 1984, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Chevron U.S.A., v. Natural Resources Defense Council case, it has been well-settled law that the judiciary must defer to agency determinations in connection with the interpretation of a statute when the law was ambiguous or unclear (so long as the agency's interpretation was reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious). See Chevron, 468 U.S. 837 (1984). The Chevron standard has been applied across the board in many legal cases since then.