Now that abortion is restricted and affirmative action is hobbled, the conservative legal movement has set its sights on a third precedent: Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
The 1984 decision, one of the most cited in American law but largely unknown to the public, bolstered the power of executive agencies that regulate the environment, the marketplace, the work force, the airwaves and countless other aspects of modern life. Overturning it has been a key goal of the right and is part of a project to demolish the “administrative state.”
A decision rejecting Chevron would threaten regulations covering — just for starters — health care, consumer safety, government benefit programs and climate change. (My colleague Charlie Savage has written more on the possible implications.)
After three and a half hours of lively arguments on Wednesday that appeared to divide the justices along the usual lines, it seemed that the court’s conservative majority was prepared to limit or even eliminate the precedent.
Chevron — and bear with me here, this will hurt only for a minute — established the principle that courts must defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. The theory is that agencies have more expertise than judges, are more accountable to voters and are better able to establish uniform national policies. “Judges are not experts in the field, and are not part of either political branch of the government,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in 1984 for a unanimous court (though three of its justices recused for reasons of health or financial conflict). Stevens later said of the opinion, which was easily his most influential, that it was “simply a restatement of existing law.”
The decision was not much noted when it was issued. “If Chevron amounted to a revolution, it seems almost everyone missed it,” Justice Neil Gorsuch, the harshest critic of the doctrine on the current court, wrote in 2022, saying that courts had read it too broadly.
At first, conservatives believed that empowering agencies would constrain liberal judges. So the Reagan administration, which had interpreted the Clean Air Act to allow looser regulations of emissions, celebrated the decision.
Justice Stevens, rejecting a challenge from environmental groups, wrote that the Environmental Protection Agency’s reading of the statute was “a reasonable construction” that was “entitled to deference.”
The head of the E.P.A. when the regulation was issued? Anne Gorsuch, Justice Gorsuch’s mother.
Most surprisingly, given its current bad odor with the right, Chevron was at least initially championed, celebrated and elevated by Justice Antonin Scalia, a revered conservative figure who died in 2016. “In the long run Chevron will endure and be given its full scope,” he wrote in a law review article in 1989, adding that this was so “because it more accurately reflects the reality of government.”
What, then, accounts for the decision’s place on the conservative hit list? After all, as the case itself demonstrates, it requires deference to agency interpretations under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The answers are practical, cultural and philosophical. Business groups on the whole remain hostile to regulation. Many conservatives have come to believe that executive agencies are dominated by liberals under both parties’ administrations — the shorthand for this critique is “the deep state.” Some on the right have become hostile to the very idea of expertise.
But the attack on Chevron on Wednesday was mostly fought on the terrain of the separation of powers, with conservative justices insisting that courts rather than agencies must determine the meaning of ambiguous statutes.
Still, Justice Samuel Alito, who is likely to vote to overrule the decision, expressed puzzlement on Wednesday about its history.
“Chevron was initially popular,” he said. It was seen as “an improvement because it would take judges out of the business of making what were essentially policy decisions. Now, were they wrong then?”
THE LATEST NEWS
Israel-Hamas War
More than a million people are living in squalid conditions in Rafah, southern Gaza. See how the tent camps there have expanded.
Israel and Hamas are battling near a hospital in Khan Younis, also in the south.
More on the Middle East
The U.S. struck Houthi military sites in Yemen as the group prepared to fire missiles from them, the Pentagon said.
Pakistan said its military had carried out strikes inside Iran, a day after Iranian forces conducted an airstrike in Pakistan.
Iran’s missile strikes in neighboring countries are a signal to its supporters and a warning to its enemies.
2024 Election
Ron DeSantis plans to reduce campaigning in New Hampshire to focus on next month’s primary in South Carolina. His super PAC began laying off employees.
Before the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley is framing herself as Donald Trump’s top rival.
CNN canceled a debate in New Hampshire after Trump and Haley declined to participate, a day after ABC News did the same.
The Trump campaign is trying to effectively secure the nomination before Super Tuesday. (“The Run Up” explains why the primary already feels over.)
More on Politics
Senators from both parties think they can strike a deal to secure the southern border and aid Ukraine. But Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that House Republicans might not agree to a compromise.
The judge overseeing Trump’s defamation trial threatened to eject him from the courtroom if he kept making disruptive comments.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York proposed a $233 billion state budget that includes more money to help New York City manage its migrant crisis.
Business
Apple will remove a feature from its watches that detects blood-oxygen levels. It lost a patent case over the technology last year.
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer, will leave the company’s board of directors after 14 years.
Condé Nast announced it would fold the online music publication Pitchfork into GQ, leading to layoffs of employees including Pitchfork’s editor in chief.
Google will cut 100 jobs at YouTube, which has struggled to contend with an advertising slowdown and competition from TikTok.
Europe
King Charles III will be hospitalized for prostate treatment. Kate, the Princess of Wales, is in the hospital after undergoing abdominal surgery.
Greenland has lost 20 percent more of its ice sheet than previously thought. Climate change is to blame, a study said.
Germany, once the main driver of Europe’s growth, is at an economic standstill.
Guatemala
A rich family created a utopian enclave outside Guatemala’s capital. Some say it is a testament to inequality.
American officials barred a Guatemalan former president from entering the U.S. because of bribery accusations, a signal of support for the new leader’s anticorruption drive.
Other Big Stories
Some American states are trying to convince “super drivers” — who travel about 110 miles a day on average — to switch to electric vehicles.
Cancer deaths in the U.S. are falling, but the number of new cases has increased, according to an American Cancer Society report.
Three people died in Portland after a power line fell on a car during severe weather. Bitter cold will return to much of the U.S. tomorrow.
Opinions
Child care is health care. Congress should support both by funding emergency child care, Molly Dickens and Lucy Hutner write.
Bans haven’t lowered the national abortion rate. Abortion opponents must find another way, Daniel Williams writes.
Here are columns by Gail Collins on the Republican primaries, Pamela Paul on politicization in public health and Nicholas Kristof on a war with North Korea.
MORNING READS
“L’eggo my Eggo”: The food industry has long advertised its products as impossible to resist. In the Ozempic age, has craveability lost its selling power?
Counterfeit coffee: Read how farmers in Hawaii fought companies selling fake Kona beans.
Stranded: They booked tickets for a three-year cruise that never happened. Now their lives are falling apart, and they’re seeking criminal charges.
Listings: A New Mexico-based homebuilder named layouts after Harriet Tubman and Anne Frank. Then the internet found out.
Social Q’s: “An enemy has infiltrated my walking group.”
Vows: A founding member of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot got married. The vibe was cozy-goth.
Lives Lived: Claire Fagin transformed the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing as its dean, tripling enrollment, establishing a doctoral program and building the school into a world leader in nursing research. She died at 97.
SPORTS
N.F.L.: The Dallas Cowboys will retain Mike McCarthy as head coach, the team announced.
Health emergency: Police officers found the Colts owner Jim Irsay unresponsive during a December incident at Irsay’s house and treated him for a suspected overdose.
N.B.A.: Dejan Milojević, the Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach, died yesterday at 46 after suffering a heart attack at a team dinner this week.
ARTS AND IDEAS
New theater season: “The Great Gatsby” is coming to Broadway this spring as a musical featuring the stars of “Newsies” and “Miss Saigon.” The novel has been adapted many times: It debuted on Broadway in 1926, a year after the book’s publication, and later became a glitzy film, an opera, a seven-hour play and even a video game. Since the novel recently entered the public domain, adaptations are sure to keep coming. There’s already a competing musical called “Gatsby,” with music from Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, in the works.
More on culture
In a memoir, Crystal Hefner, the third wife of Playboy’s founder, Hugh Hefner, recounts his misogyny.
“I didn’t know if they were hugging or burping each other”: Jimmy Fallon joked about Vivek Ramaswamy’s appearance at a Trump rally.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Cozy up with a winter minestrone that uses cabbage two ways.
Cut down on your screen time.
Clean your water bottle using these tips to prevent mold.
Manage passwords with an app.
Organize your pantry.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was invalidly.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow.
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