Murkowski Welcomes Supreme Court Decision to Rein in Federal Administrative State in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Murkowski Welcomes Supreme Court Decision to Rein in Federal Administrative State in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Anchorage, AK-U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today issued the following decision after the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Signed by a six-Justice majority, the decision overturns the Chevrondoctrine and restricts' federal agencies' ability to promulgate regulations that depart from federal law.

"It's hard to express how important this decision is for the future of our country. For too long, agencies have amassed power to regulate and interpret the law as they please, with few mechanisms available to rein in their excesses and overreach," said Senator Murkowski. "Alaskans know firsthand the dangers of the unchecked administrative state and the damage regulatory decisions have had on our state, including our responsible resource development. Today's decision will begin to change that. It will help restore public confidence that the laws that Congress writes will actually govern our country, not a faceless bureaucracy that lacks public accountability."

In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Councilthat "if Congress has not directly addressed the question at the center of a dispute, a court was required to uphold the agency's interpretation of the statute as long as it was reasonable." This established a new doctrine of significant deference to agency interpretation of federal law. In the forty years since that ruling, however, the administrative state has grown tremendously, with agencies routinely issuing costly, burdensome rules and regulations that do not reflect the plain language or congressional intent of the law.

The Loper decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., is available here.