Consolidated with Relentless v. Department of Commerce

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court considered 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 made sense for two key reasons: agency civil servants have more scientific and subject-matter expertise than judges, and rules are promulgated with a democratic public notice and input from the public, unlike court opinions. Here, the justices gave themselves the opportunity to concentrate even more power in the judiciary and give judges more leeway to brazenly strike down rules that they dislike. 

Loper Bright Enterprises was represented in this case by a group that has received millions of dollars from the Koch Network. Attorneys working for the Koch Network likewise “volunteered” 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. 

On June 28, 2024, in a 6-2 decision along partisan lines (with Justice Jackson recusing since she had previously ruled on the case as a DC Circuit Judge), the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority struck down the Chevron doctrine — a radical reversal of precedent and a huge win for corporations and the Court’s wealthy benefactors.

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