Supreme Court Limits Federal Agency Power in Loper Bright v. Raimondo

In a landmark 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court overruled Chevron deference, the 40-year-old doctrine that required courts to defer to federal agencies' reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. The case involved a challenge to a National Marine Fisheries Service rule requiring commercial fishing vessels to pay for federal monitors.

The majority held that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority. Agencies' interpretations may still be informative, but courts are no longer required to defer to them.

The dissent warned that the decision would create massive uncertainty across every area of federal regulation and shift power from expert agencies to generalist judges.