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Big Government's Abuse of Power Gave SCOTUS No Choice But to Overturn Chevron

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  June 28, 2024 3:45 PM

Those in favor of less government and protections against the abuse of power took a hard-earned and well-deserved victory lap on Friday after the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference. 

As Townhall reported of the 6-3 opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority that "Chevron’s presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities" and reminded that "the very point of the traditional tools of statutory construction—the tools courts use every day—is to resolve statutory ambiguities. That is no less true when the ambiguity is about the scope of an agency’s own power—perhaps the occasion on which abdication in favor of the agency is least appropriate."

James Taylor, President of the Heartland Institute, noted on Friday that "big government advocates will squeal in protest, but they brought this decision upon themselves. By continually asserting more and more power at the expense of the people, and by wielding that power in egregious ways, federal bureaucrats left the Supreme Court no option but to rein them in," Taylor explained. "This is a wonderful day for the American people."

Indeed, big government liberals are in need of waaaambulance following the Court's decision.

"The Supreme Court’s 1984 Chevron v. NRDC decision set the stage for an accelerated expansion of federal regulatory power the likes of which America never experienced before," said Craig Rucker, President of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. "Today’s decision to overturn it is a welcomed development, though it will likely be met with hostility from those in government who feel the latitude they’ve been given to interpret vague laws as they see fit is something, like nobility, they are forever entitled to."

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As Lord Acton famously said: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." While Chevron deference was short of being "absolute" power, it was a significant power that grew like a weed as it put a weighty finger on the scale in favor of unaccountable bureaucrats and their federal edicts. 

Eric Hoplin, the president and CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) said the Supreme Court's decision overturning Chevron "reaffirms the importance of checks and balances within our government" and "ensures that agencies do not exceed their intended authority and that courts take a more active role in interpreting laws." Hoplin praised the outcome for bringing "much-needed clarity and fairness to the regulatory process, benefiting businesses and the economy as a whole."

Over on Capitol Hill, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) praised the overturn of Chevron as "a critical rebuke of the administrative state's outsized influence over the lawmaking process. For too long, unelected bureaucrats have abused their power to circumvent Congressional intent," McHenry emphasized. "The decisions handed down by the Court this week, from the overturning of Chevron to SEC v. Jarkesy, offer a welcome check to this Administration’s overzealous regulators and their weaponization of the federal bureaucracy." 

State leaders, too — often on the punishing receiving end of federal regulations against which they have a disadvantage in court — welcomed the Court's decision. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called Chevron "a misguided doctrine under which courts defer to legally dubious interpretations of statutes put out by federal administrative agencies" that "shouldn't be permitted to take advantage of statutory silence or ambiguity to extend their powers beyond what Congress intended."

Despite desperate handwringing from leftists who prefer to centralize as much power as possible in the fewest and least accountable number of hands, the consequences of Chevron being overturned are only positive: for the proper role of government, the separation of powers, and the importance of a government that reflects the will of the people via their elected representatives. 

In short: Cry more, libs.