From Deference to Respect: The Rise and Fall of Chevron Deference with Jonathan H. Adler

For forty years, federal courts were instructed to defer to federal agency interpretations of ambiguous statutory provisions. No longer. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimando, decided this past June, the Supreme Court held that so-called “Chevron deference” forced judges to violate their obligation to decide questions of law, promoted legal instability, and made it too easy for federal agencies to aggrandize their own power. Under this decision, federal courts are required to give “Due respect” to agency experience and expertise, but are not required to defer to agency opinions. Loper Bright is one of several recent Supreme Court decisions that constrain federal regulatory agencies, but it would be an exaggeration to claim Loper Bright threatens the administrative state. The shift from deference to respect is less a revolution than a modest course correction. Ultimate responsibility for taming the administrative state belongs to Congress.

About the Speaker

Jonathan H. Adler is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, administrative and constitutional law. He is the author or editor of eight books, including Business and the Roberts Court, and his articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Adler is a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, “The Volokh Conspiracy.”