The demise of the Chevron doctrine may not spell automatic doom for the federal fisheries rule that was at the center of the Supreme Court case that ended 40 years of precedent on agency deference.
During oral arguments Monday, judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — who in 2022 upheld the NOAA Fisheries regulation on Chevron grounds — appeared to think that there is still statutory support to affirm requirements for herring vessels to pay the salaries of third-party onboard monitors.
The case, Loper Bright v. Raimondo, is back before the D.C. Circuit after the Supreme Court decided in June to overturn Chevron, which since 1984 had instructed federal judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. But the justices did not decide the fate of the NOAA Fisheries rule at the heart of the case.
“With the end of Chevron deference, this case, I think, presents a straightforward question of statutory interpretation,” said Ryan Mulvey, an attorney with Cause of Action Institute representing herring fishermen challenging the regulation.
