Justice Brett Kavanaugh has made some interesting statements regarding the United States Supreme Court Chevron ruling earlier this year.
The ruling torched the power of bureaucratic federal agencies.
According to Bloomberg Law, while speaking at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington the Supreme Court justice stated that the Chevron ruling shouldn’t be “overread.”
Kavanaugh was referring to the decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
The ruling overturned the 1984 Chevron Doctrine.
The doctrine accorded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies broad judicial deference in the interpretation of ambiguous statutes.
The SCOTUS justice drew on his experiences working for former presidents and noted that he saw firsthand how difficult it was for presidents to push bigger legislative pieces through Congress.
He added that the pressure was often on federal agencies to “push the envelope” as far as regulations were concerned.
Kavanaugh explained why he believes Loper Bright, the case that resulted in the Chevron reversal, shouldn’t be “overread.”
During his Thursday speech, Kavanaugh said:
“To be clear, don’t overread Loper Bright.”
He added, “Oftentimes Congress will grant a broad authorization to an executive agency so it’s really important, as a neutral umpire, to respect the line that Congress has drawn when it’s granted broad authorization not to unduly hinder the executive branch when performing its congressional authorized functions, but at the same time not allowing the executive branch, as it could with Chevron in its toolkit, to go beyond the congressional authorization.”
He then elaborated on the pressure he said federal agencies felt from the executive branch regarding getting new regulations in place when big pieces of legislation couldn’t pass through Congress.
Oh please, Justice Kavanaugh pleads that SCOTUS killed Chevron Deference with the best of intentions.
Let us appoint an agency to oversee ethics at the Supreme Court and give it specific powers and instructions. https://t.co/t1xAjp9Mv7
— Freebird1967 (@Freebird19671) September 28, 2024
“Even if the agency thought this is not the best reading of the statute, there would be pressure to go forward,” Kavanaugh said.
The troubling part is that Kavanaugh said that judges would uphold the regulations “when they thought the executive was acting beyond the scope of the statute.”
During his remarks on the Chevron case, he called the outcome a “course correction,” according to Broadband Breakfast.
Kavanaugh said during his speech:
“What we did in Loper Bright – in the Chief Justice’s opinion – was I think a course correction, consistent with the separation of powers to make sure the executive branch is acting within the authorization granted to it by Congress.”
That was followed by his warning not to “overread” the ruling.
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