The U.S. Supreme Court gave U.S. agriculture a big win last week when it struck down the Chevron deference on a 6-3 vote, restoring a balance of power at the federal level.
 
The 1984 Chevron doctrine required the courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous laws, allowing the federal agencies to expand their regulations beyond the intent of Congress.
 
Agricultural Retailers Association filed an amicus brief arguing that “a deference rule, as experience shows, makes it far too easy for agencies and courts to throw up their hands when faced with difficult statutory language and rely on deference rather than careful textual analysis.”  The Chevron doctrine allowed federal regulatory agencies for the past 40 years to expand their regulations beyond the intent of Congress.
 
This decision sets a new legal precedent for a broad swath of government agency regulations. This decision from the Supreme Court is important because it will require an agency to have specific statutory authority in order to submit private citizens or businesses to a regulatory requirement.
 
Click Here for the decision.