Carol Platt Liebau: Loper Bright Marks the Beginning of a Much-Needed Reckoning

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In its Loper Bright ruling, the US Supreme Court made all of us a little freer by limiting the power of unaccountable federal bureaucrats. Overruling the 1984 Chevron case, the Court held that judges need not defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of federal laws.

Agencies like the EPA, FDA, and SEC have been usurping an ever-larger role in American life. They were created to flesh out highly complex laws through expert regulation. But their power has metastasized. They’re not in the Constitution, but they’re an effective fourth branch of government. Each agency has the equivalent of legislators, who write regulations; executives, who enforce them; and judges, who interpret them.

But unlike those in the other, constitutional branches of government, these bureaucrats aren’t subject to the democratic process. They’re unelected and unaccountable.

Loper Bright marks the beginning of a much-needed reckoning with the administrative state.

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