West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading a coalition of 27 states in a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule—or at least clarify—the doctrine known as Chevron deference.
The Attorney General led a coalition of 18 states last December supporting the challengers’ request for asking the Supreme Court to review the case, which the court granted.
“We’re happy that the court has decided to revisit the Chevron doctrine, a misguided doctrine under which courts defer to legally dubious interpretations of statutes put out by federal administrative agencies,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Congress’s words matter, not agencies’ policy preferences. And agencies shouldn’t be permitted to take advantage of statutory silence or ambiguity to extend their powers beyond what Congress intended.”
“For too long, though, the Chevron doctrine has empowered agencies to do just that. This needs to stop,” the Attorney General continued. “When people think about the major problems of the administrative state, Chevron deference should be at or near the top of the list.”
