One of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Chevron deference is characterizing the decision as a rebalancing of power shared by federal agencies, lawmakers and judges.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during a Thursday appearance at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, said that for 40 years, the deference doctrine, which gave leeway to executive agencies’ reading of ambiguous laws, had put a “thumb on the scale” in legal battles over federal rules on issues like immigration, health care and the environment.
That all changed with the court’s decision in June in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, in which the conservative supermajority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled to demolish Chevron deference.
“What we did in Loper Bright, the chief justice’s opinion was I think a course correction consistent with the separation of powers to make sure that the executive branch is acting within the authorization granted to it by Congress,” said Kavanaugh, who was appointed to the high court by former President Donald Trump in 2018.
