A federal appeals court wants to know what impact the demise of the Chevron doctrine could have in two lawsuits over high-profile Biden administration climate rules.
In a short order issued Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asked parties in lawsuits over vehicle standards from EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to submit briefs on whether the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo makes a difference to their claims.
The order illustrates the sweeping effect of the high court’s decision last month to jettison Chevron, a 40-year-old legal theory that said judges should generally defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations when it comes to uncertainty in federal law.
After Loper Bright was decided, a separate federal appeals court in Louisiana sent one of the Biden administration’s more unconventional efforts to tackle climate change back to a lower court. The decision is expected to ripple through other pending lawsuits on a variety of policy matters.
