July 1 , 2024 |
Photo – Chief Justice John Roberts – Courtesy Biography
“Chevron is overruled,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority in Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that rocked the entrenched administrative state in Washington, D.C.
The original 1984 Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council ruling required the East Coast herring industry to bear the costs of hauling environmental observers on fishing boats.
The High Court’s decision rolled back the longstanding legal doctrine that gave unchecked power to federal agencies and allowed for the growth of a radical administrative state at odds with industry workers. The ruling means that courts, not federal bureaucrats, will decide the complicated and often ambiguous statutes passed by Congress.
Justice Roberts summarized the decision, saying “Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”
Wyoming’s top officials from Cheyenne to Washington praised the decision as a federal yoke being lifted off the shoulders of states.
Liberals who favor big government, like the staff at the news media organization Politico, said the decision will “hobble presidents pursuing aggressive policies on anything from abortion to student debt relief.”
U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis applauded the decision.
Barrasso called the Supreme Court ruling “a major victory for getting Washington out of Wyoming. Unelected bureaucrats, Barrasso said, “ballooned the size of government and imposed on us a costly maze of burdensome political regulations.”
Barrasso said the ruling puts power back into the hands of the American people.
Senator Lummis, in a statement on X, said this puts decision-making powers back into the hands of state and away from “unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucrats.” Lummis said, “For years, the people of Wyoming have been forced to endure the consequences of an unchecked Biden administration and its heavy-handed regulations, and they have had enough.”
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon was cautiously enthusiastic. In Cheyenne, the governor called the decision a victory for common-sense regulatory reform. “For years, unelected bureaucrats running federal agencies in Washington D.C. have used “deference” as an excuse to target certain industries based on politics. Wyoming has experienced that firsthand,” Gordon said. “Limiting their power to overreach is cause for celebration, and this ruling begins that process.”
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said the “ruling is a huge win for the people of Wyoming. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron is a major blow to the Biden Administration’s radical attempts to destroy Wyoming’s core industries through its unprecedented federal overreach.”
Liberals in league with the Biden Administration worry the decision will cripple efforts to remove student debt using COVID-related emergency powers. Also thrown in doubts are Democrat efforts to shut down coal plants.
Thousands of federal regulations regarding health care in the U.S., including Medicare and Medicaid, may also be put to new scrutiny with the High Court’s decision to remove federal bureaucrats in the unelected administrative state from making final decisions.
