NAHB Urges SCOTUS to Restrain Federal Agencies’ Power to Interpret Regulations
NAHB is continuing its ongoing battle to rein in excessive regulations and overzealous federal regulators. Most recently on the legal front, NAHB has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in an upcoming Supreme Court case that seeks to overturn a previous Supreme Court decision made decades ago that gives the government an unfair advantage when someone challenges a regulation in court.
In 1984, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. That opinion created the “Chevron Doctrine,” which requires courts to abide by a statute if it is “clear,” but also requires courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an unclear statute if the interpretation is “reasonable,” even if it is not the best interpretation. In other words, Chevron gives federal agencies wide latitude to interpret the scope of regulations.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next term in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, where the court has been asked to overturn the Chevron ruling. The Loper case involves a group of commercial fishermen who challenged a National Marine Fisheries Service regulation that requires the fishing industry to pay for the costs of observers who monitor compliance with fishery management plans.