West Virginia v. EPA is a challenge to an environmental rule that West Virginia and other petitioners argue exceeds the EPA's authority. Petitioners argue that the EPA's rule is unlawful under the "major questions doctrine," which requires that Congress "speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance." Randolph May and I wrote a law review article, NFIB V. OSHA: A Unified Separation of Powers Doctrine and Chevron's No Show, on this subject. A ruling in this case could make it harder for agencies to issue sweeping rules based on vague or unspecific authority in laws passed by Congress.
American Hospital Association v. Becerra involves a challenge to an administrative interpretation of a complicated Medicare statute. For our purposes, during the oral argument in this, the Court appeared to consider overturning or narrowing "Chevron deference." Chevron specifies that courts will uphold agency actions that are based on statutory language that is ambiguous or silent, so long as the actions are based on reasonable interpretations of the relevant statutes. In other words, rather than determining the best reading of the law as the Constitution tasks it to do, the judiciary will permit any reasonable interpretation of a vague or ambiguous law. A ruling in Becerra may limit the executive branch's power by instructing the judiciary to be less deferential.
We will closely read these opinions when the Court releases them. We also note that the two legal issues – the major questions doctrine and Chevron deference – mesh together. Read our law review article mentioned above to learn more.
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