West Virginia v. EPA: The Major Questions Doctrine has the potential to cause major problems for regulators

Released by the Supreme Court on June 30, 2022, the case of West Virginia v. EPA represents the latest touchstone in a series of cases regarding the power of regulatory agencies to regulate according to their own interpretations. The decision, still just a few weeks old, is already having an effect on agency rulemaking and litigation as agency adversaries begin to utilize the Supreme Court’s definition of “major questions” to their advantage.

The Roots of Modern Judicial Deference to Agency Interpretation

The modern standards for interpreting the scope of an agency’s power to regulate and to interpret statutes stems from a line of cases, most notably in the 1984 case Chevron v. National Resource Defense Council, Inc. (commonly referred to as Chevron).
Chevron defined the current scope of judicial deference, where a court places significant trust in how an agency interprets the law, to agency interpretations of a statute enacted by Congress.

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