Strange Bedfellows: How a Supreme Court Ruling Found Its Perfect Match in the Trump Administration

Public Policy & Regulation attorney Andy Emerson was quoted in Corporate Compliance Insights analyzing the ongoing effects of the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision in conjunction with the Trump Administration's deregulatory agenda. The June 2024 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned Chevron deference, which instructed federal courts to defer to an executive agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. The decision created a major shift in administrative law and executive branch functions, and subsequent directives from the administration ordered agencies to identify and eliminate regulations that potentially conflict with Loper Bright. With courts now empowered to question agency actions more closely, companies face a patchwork of rulings that makes compliance especially difficult. Mr. Emerson observed that judicial interpretations of federal regulation nationwide have been inconsistent.

"At this point we're at the opening stages of the interpretive process, which means that we have even greater inconsistency, and it is more difficult to ensure that you're in compliance" with a particular law, he said.

READ: Strange Bedfellows: How a Supreme Court Ruling Found Its Perfect Match in the Trump Administration