Overturning the Chevron Doctrine makes all regulations more vulnerable to legal challenges.
Why should you care about the Chevron Doctrine?
You may have heard back in June that the Supreme Court has overturned the Chevron Doctrine. So why should the horse industry care?
Overturning the Chevron Doctrine makes all regulations more vulnerable to legal challenges. This is inclusive of regulations that are beneficial to the horse industry such as those related to disease reporting, import/export, and transportation.
The Chevron Doctrine was a 40-year-old precedent that instructed lower court judges to defer to “reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes”. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts stated it is the “province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is.” This means that now courts, not regulatory agencies, are in charge of deciding how a regulation is intended to be enforced when the situation is unclear.
One potential result of overturning the Chevron Doctrine is that if future administrations wish to change a policy, they will likely take it to Congress to avoid any ambiguity, making quick decisions difficult as they would go through the full legislative process.
The concern is that decisions by judges, not agencies, particularly at the local elected level, may lack the expertise needed to interpret the intent of regulations should they be challenged in a court. You could have a judge with no livestock experience trying to interpret environmental regulations concerning manure, or someone with no pharmaceutical experience trying to interpret regulations concerning drugs intended for veterinary use.
A current example that may impact many in our industry, such as veterinarians, is the rule issued by the Federal Trade Commission banning noncompete clauses in employer contracts. The regulation is being challenged by business groups and by overturning the Chevron Doctrine the Supreme Court has placed the interpretation of the regulation at risk.
The American Horse Council will continue to track key regulatory items and keep its members updated on their implementation, enforcement, and challenges.
