Fishing Industry Lands Supreme Court Win, Overturning Chevron Doctrine

In a session rife with momentous decisions, one of the most consequential made by the Supreme Court recently has humble origins on the decks of New England fishing boats. After years of operating in one of the most regulated industries in the nation, New England herring boat operators challenged the federal government’s power. They wanted to level the playing field. And that meant taking down a 40-year precedent known as the Chevron deference doctrine. That precedent required courts to defer to agencies’ “reasonable interpretations” where statutes are ambiguous. This gave sweeping authority to federal agencies to issue rules and regulations....