The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases – both challenging a National Marine Fisheries Service rule that requires commercial fishing boats to pay for government monitors that keep watch over crews for overfishing violations. That rule not only requires fishing boat captains to allow the government monitors on board the vessels while underway but also requires the fishing crews to bear the daily costs of the federal watchdog on their decks.
The cases are Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce. The cases ask the Supreme Court to consider more than just the question of whether the government can force a private enterprise to bear the monetary costs of accommodating a government function. It challenges what’s referred to as the Chevron doctrine, a legal doctrine that arose from a previous Supreme Court decision that has over time given wide swath to federal agencies to sort of fill in the holes – if you will – of how the government is to enforce a law when the statute passed by Congress doesn’t explicitly dictate it. It basically allows unelected federal bureaucrats to create laws. Under the Chevron Doctrine, the federal judiciary gives deference to federal agencies’ interpretation of the law, and some would argue abdicate their constitutional responsibility to say what the law means. Chevron deference is the lifeblood of the “administrative state.”
“The dispute at the center of these lawsuits is real, however, and it illustrates how vulnerable Americans are to the whims of federal agencies empowered to invent their own authority,” wrote Jacob Sullum, in Reason.
Based on the justices’ questions, it appears the Supreme Court might be ready to neuter the doctrine, if they don’t abolish it altogether. The Hill reported several justices appeared to question the Chevron doctrine’s dominance. Justice Neil Gorsuch described the doctrine as “The government always wins.” Justices also argued that the Chevron Doctrine has given the Executive Branch “a wide license to flip-flop on its interpretations of statutes to fit its policy goals.”
That’s evident when examining the way in which the Biden-Harris administration has been using executive overreach as a weapon against the firearm industry.
Go to the full article for more: https://lnkd.in/geBVFqDu.
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There's nothing like seeing your field covered in flag wrap! Can't wait for the 4th 🇺🇸