As the nation celebrates the 248th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, it is appropriate that the U.S. Supreme Court has restrained a rising administrative state. That’s the result of the court’s 6-3 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
In the decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court overruled the so-called “Chevron Doctrine,” by which the judiciary deferred to administrative agencies on interpreting ambiguous statutory language by Congress. Going forward, courts will decide what Congress means when it writes less than straightforward legislation. The courts have expertise in law — administrative agencies do not. Administrative agencies are supposed to implement laws passed by Congress, not make law themselves. Long ago, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that it is “emphatically” the duty of the courts to say what the law is.
The…
