Plain-English summary
Court trims agency deference, vacates and remands First Circuit ruling in Relentless v. Department of Commerce
The Supreme Court decided Relentless v. Department of Commerce on June 28, 2024, vacating and remanding a First Circuit decision. The Court limited how and when courts should defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of statutes, focusing on whether silence in a statute creates ambiguity when the statute expressly grants narrow powers elsewhere.
Why this matters
The ruling narrows circumstances in which courts must defer to federal agencies’ legal interpretations, which could make it harder for agencies to rely on broad readings of statutes and could shift more interpretive power back to courts and potentially to Congress. This affects how federal regulations are justified and reviewed across many policy areas.
Who may feel it
- Federal agencies and their lawyers
- Businesses and individuals regulated by federal agencies
- Federal courts reviewing agency actions
- Congress, because of potential pressure to write clearer statutes
Key questions
- Should the Court overrule Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (the doctrine that instructs courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes)?
- If Chevron remains, does statutory silence about a controversial power—where the statute elsewhere grants explicit, narrow authority—count as ambiguity requiring deference?