The Supreme Court's conservative majority in Wednesday's arguments appeared ready to reel in a legal precedent challenged by a group of fishermen who say the decades-old doctrine gave the administrative state too much power over their business.
On Wednesday morning, the high court heard a set of two cases stemming from lawsuits brought by New Jersey fishermen and herring fishermen from Rhode Island who argued that a regulation issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requiring them to pay $700 a day for an "at-sea monitor" is out of the bounds Congress set for the federal agency.
The core of their arguments, presented Wednesday by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) and veteran Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement, is what’s known as the Chevron doctrine — a legal theory established in the '80s that says anytime a federal regulation is challenged, the courts should defer to the agency’s interpretation of whether Congress granted them authority to issue the rule.
