Major Supreme Court rulings hit regulators from multiple angles
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Exactly 30 years ago, a Warren G hip-hop classic opened with the line "Regulators, mount up!" But now the Supreme Court is giving very different signals.
Why it matters: A 6-3 ruling Monday from the court's conservative majority brings even more jeopardy for expansive executive rules.
- It's the latest of several decisions that together sap bureaucratic powers in areas where Congress hasn't given detailed marching orders.
Driving the news: The latest ruling holds that the six-year clock to bring Administrative Procedure Act claims doesn't start until a plaintiff is injured by an agency action, instead of when it's first finalized.
- The case, Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, is about debit card fees. But it could enable challenges to various kinds of existing rules, analysts say.
- It came 72 hours after the court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned "Chevron deference," which could constrain recently issued climate regulations still in court, and future policies.
Catch up quick: Right before Chevron, SCOTUS stayed a recent EPA air pollution rule while challenges play out — a move that some analysts say could spell trouble for other new agency policies.
- And in 2022, the court's conservatives, in a case about power plant emissions, curtailed executive running room on "major questions" absent explicit Capitol Hill blessing.
The big picture: Conservatives, often backed by business groups, see today's court as a needed corrective, reigning in agencies using power in ways Congress never articulated.
- But liberal justices and green groups, among others, say the court is preventing agencies and their technical experts from acting on emerging and evolving risks.
What's next: ClearView Energy Partners, in a note, says the Loper Bright and Corner Post cases have together changed the landscape.
- "To the extent that uncertainty can quash investment and impair return, we would suggest that Loper Bright could have significant implications for U.S. energy infrastructure on its own," it writes.
- "And, to the degree that Corner Post provides a means for reopening (or extending) disputes, we think it could increase the amplitude and frequency of future policy flux."
