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.

On June 28, 2024, however, SCOTUS overruled Chevron in the consolidated cases of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, and held that Chevron was inconsistent with both the constitutional obligation of courts to say what the law is and with the Administrative Procedure Act. Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, 144 S Ct 2244 [2024]. The Loper court held that the stare decisis factors did not support retaining Chevron, and SCOTUS further held that going forward, courts “must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”