For decades, conservative radio talking heads and television hosts have complained constantly about activist courts attempting to push a “liberal agenda.” The year is 2024 and the activist court is here and it is being run by six conservatives who are enacting an aggressive war from the judicial branch against working-class people.
If we lived in an ideal world, you’d never have to think about U.S. Supreme Court cases. Unfortunately, we don’t. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce, six conservative justices ruled to overturn decades of judicial precedent dating back to Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc., which established the Chevron deference.
The Chevron deference, established in the above case in 1984, refers to the doctrine of judicial deference given to administrative action. In Chevron, the Supreme Court set forth a legal test as to when the court should defer to the agency’s answer or interpretation, holding that such judicial deference is appropriate where the agency’s answer was not unreasonable, so long as Congress had not spoken directly to the precise issue at question.
By overruling the Chevron deference doctrine, the U.S. Supreme Court has given the unelected courts, controlled disproportionately by Ivy League graduates with lifetime appointments, significant power over government agencies that are staffed with genuine, expert, dedicated civil servants.
In simple terms, Chevron mattered because expertise mattered. Congress is made up of politicians. This will not shock you, but politicians are not experts in food safety, construction rules, labor law, or any number of other things that experts who spend their entire lives working at government agencies
Dana Apple, an attorney at Boyd Kenter Thomas & Parrish, provided the following information for our readers: “We live in an ever-more complicated world, requiring more — and more complicated — laws. Congress, particularly a deadlocked Congress, cannot address the myriad issues on most topics. For decades, Congress’s solution has been to create administrative agencies to fill in the details. Congress creates the bones; administrative agencies put flesh on the bones through regulations and/or adjudications. If Congress disagrees with an agency’s interpretation, it can amend the statute to clarify its intent.
“In Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984), the Supreme Court held that courts should defer to agency interpretations unless the interpretation is unreasonable. On June 28, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron, holding that courts, not agencies, should interpret laws, and courts should give no deference to agency interpretations. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22–451, 603 U.S. __ (2024).
“A significant basis for the Court’s decision was the allegation that the removal of interpretive power from administrative agencies restores the balance of power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It does not. Administrative agencies are part of the executive branch, as they administer and “execute” the laws passed by Congress. Loper removes that authority and gives it to the judicial branch.
“At last count, there were 439 federal agencies, staffed by people with expertise in the subject area. Allowing legal challenges to every administrative regulation and adjudication will add significantly to the number and complexity of cases submitted to an already-overburdened judiciary, and place issues requiring expertise in front of people with none. The Supreme Court has taken aim at the “administrative state” so detested by the anti-labor Republicans. They have done so, not with a warning shot, but with a nuclear bomb. And they have won.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler released the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce, which overturns decades of precedent following Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc.: “The AFL-CIO condemns today’s decision, which awards authority to the judiciary that should stay with policy experts in the federal government. Extremist politicians and their corporate allies have schemed for decades to undermine regulatory agencies, and this disheartening decision is a huge gift to those same interests. Today, a right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has eroded the federal government’s ability to ensure that the law is enforced and that working people are protected. This ruling paves the way for corporate challenges to the actions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, and other agencies with a duty to protect workers’ lives and rights, which would allow employers to get away with retaliation, union-busting and maintaining dangerous workplace conditions.
Congress set up agencies with deep expertise in studying and regulating ways to protect America’s workers. This ruling constitutes a brazen power grab by the Supreme Court to have judges rewrite the rules. The AFL-CIO remains committed to protecting the health, safety and rights of workers, and we will continue the fight to advance the interests of all working people over corporate interests.
Statement from Celine McNicholas, Director of Policy/General Counsel at Economic Policy Institute, on June 28, 2024: “Today, the Supreme Court issued decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce that overturned the longstanding precedent of Chevron deference. This ruling will make it harder for federal agencies to govern, operate, or enforce workers’ rights and protections effectively, meaning workers will be left exposed to more dangers, risks, and discriminatory treatment on the job. Regulations are critical tools for establishing worker protections and it is simply common sense that agencies that Congress authorizes to administer and enforce laws should have the ability to establish the rules that most effectively effectuate those laws. It is inefficient and unrealistic to assume that either Congress or unelected judges—rather than the deep subject matter experts at federal agencies—should be expected to specifically legislate every detail of, say, exactly what level of toxic chemical exposure is hazardous for a mine worker. Corporate interests have long sought this decision because it will substantially weaken agencies’ ability to enact basic safeguards for workers. We hope that Congress will act swiftly to correct the majority’s act of judicial hubris.”
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
