High Court Focus On 'Deference' Presents New Hurdles For Major EPA Rules

摘要

Supreme Court justices are showing increasing division on the deference judges should give EPA and other agencies' regulatory authority - setting the stage for that question to play a central role when the high court considers EPA's controversial pending rules on Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction and climate change, observers say. In concurrences to two March 9 decisions, and at the closely watched March 4 oral arguments over implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the court's conservatives have expressed concerns over agencies' leeway to act without explicit congressional authority and oversight, either by interpreting statutory text or by changing their implementation of regulations through "interpretive rules" not subject to public notice and comment.