I covered this case in a couple of articles when the oral arguments happened back in January. Well the case has been decided and the opinion released this morning, and it answers the question I asked back then, is this the end of the administrative state?
Based on what I’ve read in the decision, the answer is a resounding yes. From the Roberts authored Majority Opinion (internal citations omitted, emphasis mine ):
Joining Chief Justice Roberts in the Majority were Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. Thomas and Gorsuch filed separate concurrences while Justice Kagan filed a dissent with Justice Sotomayor joining for both and Justice Jackson joining for case No. 22–1219 (Relentless) she took no part in the consideration or decision of the case in No. 22–451 (Loper-Bright).
Held: The Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, and courts may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous; Chevron is overruled.
Seeing as the Chevron deference is the basis for almost all of the administrative rule-making since the case was decided in 1984, you can be sure that the unfettered rule-making and the larger part of the administrative state will cease to exist.
Your editor is not an attorney (Thank GOD), but he does follow the courts and has read a great deal of Law and Jurisprudence in his time. From my quick reading of the majority opinion in Loper-Bright it seems that this particular Court has had a difficult time squaring Chevron with the Administrative Procedures Act – a law that codifies federal agency administrative rules and procedures.
We will see the total effect of this ruling in the coming years. From my perspective, it will be a reining in and deconstruction of the administrative state as we’ve come to know it over the last 40-ish years.