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The whole point of having a regulatory agency is that you hire full-time experts in the field and rely on them to build a coherent and stable system of rules and enforcement. As one of the regulated parties, this gives you some solid ground to stand on.

If this can all be second-guessed in court, then it becomes more of a crap shoot based on a series of judges’ rapport with the selected experts du jour, who are selected primarily based on the suitability of their opinion, rather than their expertise.



What says the full-time experts won't have the "wrong" opinions?


Nothing. That was the case with the ATF bump stock ban a few years ago - eventually it was deemed executive overreach. But, the bar for proving that was higher with Chevron in place (went to appeals, where without Chevron it could go either way in district court based on a single judge's opinion).


District court ruling can't also be appealed?


Yes, that’s happened with the bump stock ban.

If you believe the government is usually wrong or often acting in bad faith, you might applaud the overturning of Chevron.

If you think the executive should be allowed to implement the often vague directives from Congress without fear of being overwhelmed in court, then you might think the overturning of Chevron will kill the government’s ability to function.

Personally, I’m not keen on the end of Chevron. But it probably isn’t going to lead to complete dysfunction either.


You don't have to think most people are murderers to make murder illegal.

If the regulator is wrong or corrupt 1% of the time, it's good that the victims have legal recourse. The existence of that recourse will also make the regulators more likely to do honest work.


They already had recourse, as demonstrated by the over-turning of the ATF bump stock ban.


The level of basic ignorance of this stuff is absolutely mind-boggling.

Guys… if the government tells you to do something and you disagree, you could always take them to court.

I applaud your patience.


You can't blindly rely on people with power to always do the unselfishly correct thing. Such power corrupts, and there needs to be a somewhere to turn when that power is abused.

This is why I like the Chevron decision a lot!


There already was somewhere to turn. Chevron based rules could always be explicitly modified by new legistlative directives. Additionally, courts still had final say and could strike down agency regulations if they were based on unreasonable interpretations of federal law.

This ruling is a power grab by the court that says congress must write explicit rules and can't delegate authority to agencies to determine how to execute a mandate. The ethics rules and enforcement structure for those rules are much more strict for employees of government regulatory agencies than for the supreme court justices. If you are concerned about power corrupting, this seems like a very bad decision.


Sure, but judges have power too. As do companies with large budgets.

It’s a balancing act and I fear overturning Chevron shifts the balance to far in the other direction.




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