- Term
- 2023-2024
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
Consolidated with Relentless v. Department of Commerce
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court has the chance to overturn a 40-year-old precedent established in Chevron v. NRDC — known as Chevron deference — which requires courts to defer to the expertise of federal agencies when their regulations are challenged if those rules are reasonable. This precedent makes sense for two key reasons: agency civil servants have more scientific and subject-matter expertise than judges, and the rules are promulgated with a democratic public notice and input from the public, unlike court opinions. Here, the justices have given themselves the opportunity to concentrate even more power in the judiciary and give judges more leeway to brazenly strike down rules that they dislike. An adverse ruling would have particularly devastating impacts on environmental regulations and other crucial safeguards that protect communities. Loper Bright Enterprises is represented in this case by a group Koch has given millions to. Attorneys who work for the Koch network are likewise “volunteering” to represent Relentless in the consolidated case. Despite attending at least two Koch donor summits over the years, Clarence Thomas has refused to recuse himself from the case and has abruptly reversed his previous support for the Chevron precedent.
