FAYETTEVILLE — Federal agencies have a significant impact on agriculture in the Western United States, and the effects of a landmark Supreme Court decision on the scope of agency authority will be highlighted at the Western Water, Ag, and Environmental Law Conference.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, courts are no longer required to defer to agency interpretations of statutes when parties challenge the agency's actions. The significant change has implications for the ag industry. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)
Brigit Rollins, staff attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center, or NALC, and Lauren J. Caster, director at Fennemore, will discuss the implications of last year’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo during the third annual Western conference. The Supreme Court’s decision in the case overturned the “Chevron doctrine,” which said that courts should generally defer to a federal agency’s own interpretation of its rules when a litigant challenges that agency’s interpretation of its own rule.
“Under Chevron, courts typically deferred to federal agencies’ interpretations of statutes when parties challenged that agency’s action in court,” said Rollins. “Now, courts are no longer required to defer to agency interpretations. Instead, judges will interpret statutes and agencies will not necessarily have the final say in how those statutes are interpreted.”
The session, “Ag, Food, and Federal and State Agency Deference in a Post-Chevron World,” will explore the short and long-term implications of the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Producers and agricultural stakeholders across the West will need to understand how Loper Bright affects judicial scrutiny of the agencies they interact with and the decisions those agencies make,” said Caster. “The fog is beginning to clear.”
