CWSL Professor Glenn Smith Weighs in on Supreme Court Hearings

San Diego -- February 4, 2024, California Western School of Law Emeritus Professor Glenn Smith published an op-ed on jurist.org entitled, “Oral Arguments Underline Importance of Supreme Court’s Chevron Cases.” In the article, Professor Smith analyzes two “sleeper cases” from this Supreme Court term-- Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce-- noting “their potential across-the-board impact on federal regulatory authority and the fundamental distribution of power between executive agencies and federal courts.”

Professor Smith explains that in both cases what is at stake is whether the Court will uphold, overrule, or clarify precedent set in Chevron v. NRDC (1984), which detailed where authority should lie in cases when a claim is made that a federal agency has overstepped the bounds of the legislation under which it operates. Professor Smith comments that during oral arguments a clear divide could be seen between pro-Chevron justices and anti-Chevron justices, each side betraying their leanings on the question of “whether regulatory policy… will be made by executive branch experts reflecting current political dynamics or by less policy-savvy federal judges who may reflect contrary ideologies or jaundiced views about regulatory values.” 

Ultimately, Professor Smith argues that the Court “should retain Chevron but send signals to lower courts about how to properly use it.” He concludes that the “consequences of a broad Chevron overrule are too great for the administrative/regulatory process and the Americans who are its intended beneficiaries.”

Read the full op-ed here.