Consolidated with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

In Relentless v. Department of Commerce, 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 the 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.

Attorneys working for the Koch Network “volunteered” to represent Relentless in this case. Loper Bright Enterprises was likewise represented in the consolidated case by a group to which the Koch Network has given millions. 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 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority struck down the Chevron doctrine — a radical reversal of precedent and a huge win for corporations and the Court’s wealthy benefactors.

Powerbroker-Affiliated Organizations