The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Massive Blow to Unelected Bureaucrats—Here’s What That Means

The historic Loper decision is a major win to restrict government agency overreach that will last for generations

Forty years after the Supreme Court established the “Chevron deference doctrine,” the high court overturned the precedent set in the 1984 case Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The Chevron ruling provided unelected bureaucrats who operate regulatory agencies the power to interpret, and in some cases, create law.

To spell it out in plain English: That’s a tremendous blow against the unelected bureaucrats who run our government and a massive step forward for American freedoms.

The Roberts’ Supreme Court reigned in those unconstitutional powers of regulatory agencies  on June 28 with the majority decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024). In their opinion, the court cited Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison who said, “it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” The precedent of judicial review set in Marbury in 1803 conflicted with the Chevron doctrine and fortunately the court made a correction through Loper.

It is the role of the judiciary to interpret acts of Congress, not unelected regulatory heads. Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.” He further explained that courts need not “defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.”

The positive implications of the overturning of Chevron could be widespread. Regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Education, and the Department of Health were previously handed unchecked power to push unlawful regulations onto the American people. That level of control has fortunately been reigned in with the Loper decision.

(POLL: North Carolina Parents Know Better Than Government Schools, Voters Say)

The Biden-Harris Regime is Thwarted

In March 2024, Biden’s EPA issued unprecedented emissions rules, essentially banning gas-powered cars in the near future. The Clean Air Act was first passed in 1970 to “protect and enhance the quality of the Nation’s air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare and the productive capacity of its population.” The act was specific that air pollution control “is the primary responsibility of States and local governments,” and it gave the federal government the ability to provide financial assistance to the states for this purpose. Yet Democrats have wielded regulatory power—under the guise of law—to thwart states’ rights on this matter. It’s time for states to use Loper to challenge the EPA’s overreach.

The U.S. Department of Education, created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, has morphed into a monstrosity. Yet public schools around the nation are in constant decline.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was passed to prohibit discrimination “on the basis of sex.” Congress gave enforcement authority of Title IX to federal administrative agencies but did not give them the authority to change the definitions of words. That didn’t stop the USDOE from creating their own woke interpretations of the word “sex.” For over 50 years, Title IX has defined sex to be a biological boy or girl. Now Biden-Harris Democrats have created new regulations that change that definition to include someone who has male genitalia but “identifies” as a girl.

Ten state attorney generals have successfully filed injunctions and courts have blocked the new Title IX rules from taking effect in those states. The injunctions were granted even without the benefit of the overturning of Chevron, but the Supreme Courts’ new ruling could certainly benefit other states trying to stop the woke changes under Title IX.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is another behemoth government agency that has operated unchecked for too long. The administration of Medicare and Medicaid is one of the duties of HHS and they have been given broad authority to determine what medical costs to cover, how much to pay, and to even redefine words like “sex” as was done by the Education Department. Rather than having big questions like this addressed by Congress, the unelected bureaucratic agency regulators provide edicts that are enforced as law.

Biden recently mumbled during the presidential debate, “we finally beat Medicare.” No one really knows what his incoherent rambling meant but HHS regulators may have been reined in by the Loper decision.

In Justice Kagan’s Loper dissent, she expressed the desire for regulatory agencies to provide interpretations when there is ambiguity in the law. She further explained that since agencies report to the President, there would be oversight by the executive branch. The founding fathers never intended for the executive branch to have authority over legal interpretation—that is the expressed duty of the judicial branch according to the constitution.

Justice Kagan further chastises the court majority for overruling precedent, wrongfully claiming they “disdain restraint, and grasp for power.” On the contrary, the decision to overrule Chevron puts the power to create law back into the hands of the people—through the legislative branch—rather than unelected bureaucrats.

If there is ambiguity in the law, then Congress should take action to clarify the law rather than relinquishing legislative power to regulatory agencies of the executive branch.

(MORE FAIR COURTS: The Supreme Court’s Latest 2A Ruling Shows Why Electing Trump is Crucial for Gun Rights)