Chevron Deference Faces Existential Test

Key Question Before SCOTUS

Jody Freeman Pinpoints Crucial Issue

Chevron deference, a long-standing Supreme Court doctrine that gives weight to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, is facing a potential reckoning in a case currently before the Court.

In the case at hand, Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental Law Program at Harvard Law School, argues that the key question before the Court is whether agencies can use Chevron deference to justify interpreting statutes in ways that are "radically different" from the intent of the legislature.