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If the Court narrows Chevron, agencies and regulated sectors could face years of litigation and uneven rules
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Summary
Justices probing whether courts or agencies should fill statutory gaps centered on questions of uniformity, reliance and practical governance; attorneys warned a change could increase litigation and create jurisdictional differences while proponents said Chevron preserves national consistency.
During arguments in Relentless v. Department of Commerce, justices repeatedly asked both sides to address real‑world consequences of changing how courts review agency interpretations.
The Solicitor General argued Chevron provides national uniformity and predictable reliance that agencies and regulated parties depend on. "Thousands of judicial decisions sustaining an agency's rulemaking or adjudication as reasonable would be open to challenge," General Preeliger told the Court, framing stare‑decisis and reliance as major practical concerns.
Petitioner counsel countered that Chevron produces instability through Brand X–style flips between administrations and that the correct constitutional and statutory approach is for courts to exercise independent interpretive judgment. Martinez cautioned that relying on Chevron encourages agencies to "flip flop" and leave regulated parties unsure of the law.
Several justices highlighted areas where the choice matters most: complex, nation‑wide programs such as Medicare/Medicaid, immigration benefits, communications law and emergent technology regulation (for example, future AI legislation). The justices probed whether some statutory terms more clearly signal congressional grant of policy discretion (for example, 'reasonable' or 'appropriate') and whether the Court can or should craft clearer tests to distinguish those contexts.
If the Court limits or overrules Chevron, litigants and agencies could face an initial wave of challenges to prior agency decisions; if the Court preserves Chevron, critics warned the Court would be perpetuating a doctrine they say is incompatible with Article III and the APA. Either outcome, the justices signaled, will have long practical ramifications for how agencies draft rules and how courts allocate scarce judicial resources to statutory questions.
The Court has not announced a decision; the argument was submitted for decision at the close of the session.