The U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo last year was widely seen as a conservative victory as courts would no longer defer to agencies’ broad interpretations of ambiguous statutes, especially with respect to environmental regulation.
But with an executive branch seemingly antagonistic toward its own agencies, environmental groups may now look to the judiciary to help block President Donald Trump’s deregulatory agenda. To protect against deregulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, the groups may cite Loper Bright to say the agency has not regulated strongly enough to comply with its statutory mandates for clean air and water.