First appeared on FOX: Consumer watchdogs are warning senators to drop plans to codify a doctrine that the Supreme Court struck down earlier this year.
This summer, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of fishermen who challenged federal agencies, arguing that decades-old legal doctrines gave the administrative state excessive power over fishing.
According to a legal doctrine established in the 1980s known as the Chevron doctrine, when a federal regulation is challenged, courts should defer to an agency's interpretation of whether Congress granted the agency the authority to issue the rule, unless the agency's interpretation is reasonable and Congress has not directly addressed the issue.
Since then, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass legislation that would make Chevron respect law. The Consumers Union, a national consumer advocacy group, has urged lawmakers to “[re-empower] Bureaucrats can ban or wipe out more products with little impunity, allowing governments to exert influence over the weak.”
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“The End of Chevron “Respect is a major win for consumers,” Consumers Union secretary-general O.H. Skinner said in the letter on Wednesday.
“Chevron “Deference gives government agencies a sense of invincibility in interpreting their own authority and the power Congress has given them in law,” Skinner wrote.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have both introduced legislation to “reform the federal rulemaking process to protect consumers, workers, health care, and the environment. We must pass legislation to level the playing field and ensure that government puts people first, not giant corporations.”
“The Chevron doctrine recognizes that courts should give deference to the agency experts who write rules and regulations to implement laws passed by Congress,” Wyden wrote. “Overturning Chevron deference would undermine agencies' ability to promote worker safety, ensure clean air and water, and protect consumers.”
Wyden did not respond to a request from Fox News Digital seeking comment on Skinner's letter.
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But in a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Skinner wrote, “The problem we now have with Chevron's demise is “This would be a better world, where deference is less important than the word of Congress (not the policy preferences of bureaucrats), and where government agencies are not free to use ambiguities in statutes to expand their power and reshape what is available to consumers.”
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Democrats in Congress are pushing legislation that would make respecting Chevron law. (Associated Press)
“With deference to Chevron now over, consumers have a chance to challenge federal orders that are actually being enforced and take on the government,” he continued. Deference is a powerful factor in any lawsuit against the government, but even more so when individuals and small businesses fight government agencies over everyday regulations and requirements.”
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“Giant corporations facing entity-level regulation can always go ahead with Chevron, but… In an era of deference to the Supreme Court, the common man was trapped in a world where deference held the most power and influence, and the odds were stacked in favor of the government.”
“Thankfully, that's no longer true,” he said.
The Senate committee did not respond to a request from Fox News Digital seeking comment on Skinner's letter.
