Will the Supreme Court uphold the Chevron doctrine, under which courts defer to contested interpretations of law by agencies in the executive branch? Or will the high court instruct lower courts to determine the best reading of the law, as they do in virtually every non-agency case?
Those are the questions the Supreme Court must answer after hours of arguments Wednesday in Relentless v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright v. Raimondo, two cases that challenge the Chevron doctrine.
Most of the justices sounded skeptical of the doctrine. But whether Chevron or any deference to agencies’ legal interpretations endures will depend on how the justices answer a host of subsidiary questions.
Both the Relentless and Loper Bright cases were brought by commercial fishermen challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service’s interpretation of a federal law called the…
