American Environmentalism Just Got Shoved Into Legal Purgatory
The Supreme Court’s decision to overrule the long-standing Chevron doctrine could be used to undo environmental progress.
In a 6–3 ruling today, the Supreme Court essentially threw a stick of dynamite at a giant, 40-year-old legal levee. The decision overruled what is known as the Chevron doctrine, a precedent that governed how American laws were administered. In doing so, it likely unleashed a river of litigation, much of which could erode away the country’s climate and environmental ambitions.
The doctrine held that when Congress passed ambiguously worded statutes, courts would defer to agencies’ interpretations of how to implement them. This was based on a general recognition of the fact that agencies,
