(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . SCOTUS Putting Chevron Deference, Basically All Regulations, On Chopping Block Next Term [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-19 Yesterday we noted that even deniers are having a hard time denying that this summer has been hot, but today, we're worried that science and facts aren't going to hold much sway in the one place where they most certainly should: the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). As the highest court in the country deals with seemingly never-ending revelations of questionable ethical decisions made by justices taking private jets to party with bajillionaires with business before their court , the justices continue to clearly indicate their willingness to do exactly what the people paying for their fancy vacations are asking for. Specifically, they seem ready and willing to dismantle the administrative state by stripping away the authority of the federal government to actually enforce the laws it's meant to enforce; in other words, it looks like they’re going to striking down what's known as the Chevron deference. We spotted the giant red flag at, of all places, SeaFoodSource dot com, which reported Monday that the Supreme Court would be taking up the case Relentless, Inc. v. the U.S. Department of Commerce. Lower courts had ruled in favor of the Department of Commerce, citing the Chevron deference and making the fishing company mad about having to pay for regulators to make sure they weren't breaking the law while at sea. And who should we find quoted there but Jerry Leeman, former fisherman turned disinfo spokesperson for the fishing industry, who claimed, "We live in a democracy and our fishery is a public resource. The public needs to be able to participate in its management and care.” Now, some could, and should, and would be right to argue that a federal agency acting to protect that fishery from overzealous fishing companies incentivized to overfish for the sake of profit is exactly what democracy looks like in terms of protecting a public resource. But Leeman is actually supporting the opposite argument: that private companies shouldn't be regulated by public servants. Clearly that's a hard sell, though, so he adopted the classic propaganda technique of co-opting the opposition's rhetoric and wrapped his ' tragedy of the commons is good, actually' argument in the trappings of "democracy" and "public resource." That's all the sideshow, though. What really matters is that the perversely named, Koch et al.-funded legal group "New Civil Liberties Alliance" (NCLA) is using these cases to try and "remove the unfair and unnecessary thumb on the scale for bureaucracy against citizens that Chevron deference inflicts on them," according to NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione. Though complicated, as all legal things are (especially if you ask a lawyer) for the climate-concerned, it boils down to the courts generally trusting federal regulators to know how to do their job, which is enforcing the rules written by Congress. So when the House and Senate write a law that says, for example, to protect Americans from polluted air, it's the EPA's job to figure out how to enforce that rule and protect the public. Under the Chevron deference, if a lawsuit boils down to 'the industry being regulated says the regulations are bad, but the regulators say they're doing what Congress instructed,' then the courts would generally defer to the federal agency and trust that the experts there are doing their job right, and that a regulated industry is just complaining about regulations. Last year, though, SCOTUS started unpacking that historic precedent , first by embracing the conservative legal disinformation known as the Major Questions Doctrine , which opened the door for polluters to charge that any given regulation isn't actually what Congress intended. Overruling the Chevron deference is almost certainly the second step of this dismantling of the administrative state , as the combination of rulings would essentially tie all of the EPA and FDA and other federal regulators' hands behind their proverbial backs. Industry has been trawling these legal waters for years, but until now, courts weren't taking the bait. But apparently after getting treated to luxury vacations and private jet flights, Justice Clarence Thomas has changed his mind on the issue . So if something smells fishy in SCOTUS next year, rest assured it's not just the catch of the day! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/19/2200333/-SCOTUS-Putting-Chevron-Deference-Basically-All-Regulations-On-Chopping-Block-Next-Term?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/