Supreme Court Case Could Disrupt Agency Authority
Labor and employment attorney Timothy Taylor was quoted in a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) article about the potential impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on whether to overturn the Chevron precedent. Under Chevron, when a statute's meaning is not clear, courts defer to federal agencies charged with applying the law — unless the agencies' directives are unreasonable. The decision could have a significant impact on the power of federal agencies, particularly those enforcing employment laws like the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the ability of businesses and individuals to challenge administrative actions in court. Mr. Taylor highlighted the potential implications of overturning Chevron for the entire structure of employment policies, such as overtime pay and tips.
"Many executive orders have enacted employment policy through government contracting — [regarding] minimum wage, vaccine requirements, unionization rules, discrimination rules — based on obscure presidential authority," he said. "If Chevron is overruled, those rules become harder to justify by the agencies tasked with implementing presidential directives."