A Quick Note on the Demise of Chevron Doctrine

The Supreme Court’s overturning of a 40-year precedent upends the way we govern and regulate just about everything

There’s a lot to cover in the news, and I didn’t want the most recent SCOTUS ruling to get overlooked. It’s truly an earthquake in the legal world and administrative regulation.

On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a case, Loper Bright v. Raimondo, and it did what we all feared it might: It overruled Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. That case has been the law of the land for 40 years, but this Court doesn’t seem to care a whit about precedent.

To help explain what this is all about, I co-wrote a script with Robert Reich on the Chevron Doctrine around five months ago, and what we said in it still stands today—only it has now become a grim reality.

You can watch it here. (It’s a quick two and a half minutes.)

I’ll have much more to say on the Supreme Court as the dust settles from its latest term—especially after the presidential immunity case comes out sometime after 10am on Monday.

Finally, a personal note.

I know that with Trump, the debate, the Supreme Court, Project 2025 and fascist MAGA Republicans, it can all feel overwhelming. The stakes just continue to mount. This is what historically happens at a critical inflection point, but that doesn’t provide much comfort.

We aren’t alone in this. France goes to the polls today with the far-right on the march and looking to seize power, while over in the UK voters have a chance on July 4 to end not only incompetent Tory rule but the Conservative Party itself. The world is in flux, up is down, and it’s understandable that you might feel stressed.

You aren’t alone in this either. Stress and anxiety are indicators that something we value is at risk. For our ancestors, it was their very lives, and for us it is our way of life. But stress, properly channeled, was the way they outsmarted, outran or outperformed predators, and it is how we will overcome those who threaten us today.

When the Supreme Court stripped away a fundamental right to abortion in the Dobbs decision, it galvanized women voters and other pro-choice advocates across the country. Democrats, who want to restore that right, began winning in special elections and then the 2022 midterms. Abortion referenda began to prevail in unexpected places, from Kansas to Ohio, and by wide margins.

Now, thanks ironically to the Supreme Court, voters will be highly motivated to turnout for abortion rights in key battleground states, including Arizona and Nevada, that could decide the race for the White House and control of the Senate. Voters are stressed, but they are also angry and determined, and they have channeled that into decisive action and turnout.

And we can do the same in November.

Jay