Corporate lobbyists eye new lawsuits after Supreme Court limits federal power

The legal bombshell arrived Friday, when the six conservatives on the Supreme Court invalidated a decades-old legal precedent that federal judges should defer to regulatory agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous or Congress fails to specify its intentions. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. described the framework as “unworkable,” at one point arguing in his opinion that it “prevents judges from judging.”

Many conservatives and businesses long had chafed over the legal doctrine, known as Chevron deference after a case involving the oil giant in the 1980s. They had encouraged the Supreme Court over the past year to dismantle the precedent in a flood of legal filings, then rejoiced when the nation’s highest judicial panel sided with them this week — paving the way for industry to commence a renewed assault against the power and reach of the executive branch.

“This means that agencies are going to have a hard time defending their legal positions,” said Daryl Joseffer, the executive vice president and chief counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, which filed an amicus brief in the case. “That means it will be easier to challenge some regulations than it used to be. That obviously has a real impact on whether it’s worth bringing some cases.”

Some of the most powerful corporate interests under the government’s watch predicted the decision might aid in their ongoing legal clashes with the Biden administration over its policies to cancel student debt, improve overtime pay, ensure net neutrality, protect waterways from pollution and enhance investor safeguards, including the government’s nascent work to regulate cryptocurrency.

“Right now, I think a lot of folks out there in trade associations, business associations, are thinking about that,” said Beth Milito, the executive director of the legal arm at the National Federation of Independent Business, a Washington-based lobbying group. “Should we reexamine any ongoing litigation or aggressive investigation in light of this decision? Are there new areas of attack we can now raise?”

NFIB already has filed or joined multiple lawsuits against the Biden administration, including two recent cases targeting federal rules that could enhance workers’ benefits and expand overtime pay. Going forward, the group expects lawyers to “raise the decision” on Chevron with judges as they weigh whether the Labor Department repeatedly overstepped its authorities, Milito said.

But she predicted the most lasting consequence of the Supreme Court’s ruling might be that it…