US Supreme Court Attacks Federal Regulation of Corporate Interests

In a long-awaited and deeply reactionary ruling released Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 40 years of precedent to weaken federal regulation of corporations and banks on a wide range of issues, including public health, worker safety, wage and hour standards, environmental policy, abortion and birth control, consumer rights, food and drug standards, and business oversight.

In deciding in favor of the plaintiffs in Loper Bright Enterprises v. RaimondoSupreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote directly that “Chevron is overruled,” referring to the so-called “deference to Chevron” doctrine stemming from the 1984 ruling. Chevron vs. Natural Resources Defense Council ruling. The decision held that courts have an obligation to defer to federal regulatory agencies to interpret regulations that Congress left vague, recognizing the scientific expertise of those agencies.

Roberts wrote, “The agencies have no special authority to resolve statutory ambiguities. The courts do.” This amounts to an open invitation to corporate lobbyists and special interest groups to bombard the courts with challenges to government regulations that harm their profit interests, regardless of the cost to the health and well-being of the public. It also seeks to thwart the implementation of new regulations by requiring them to be sanctioned by legislative and judicial review.

Roberts was joined by the rest of the court’s six-justice right-wing majority: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Three moderates — Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Justice Elena Kagan — dissented, and Sotomayor and Brown Jackson joined Kagan’s separate opinion.

The Supreme Court in its composition from June 30, 2022 to the present. Front row, left to right: Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Back row, left to right: Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Photo: Fred Schilling, photo from USAs Høyesterett)

The court considered Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo along with an almost identical case, Unyielding vs. the Department of CommerceBoth cases involved a 1976 federal law that requires herring vessels to carry federal observers on board to collect data to prevent overfishing.

Under a 2020 regulation interpreting the law, companies that owned the boats were required not only to transport observers but also to pay $700 a day to supervise them. Fishing companies in New Jersey and Rhode Island sued, arguing that the 1976 act did not authorize the National Marine Fisheries Service to impose the fee.

The case was financially supported and prosecuted by two interest groups, the Cause of Action Institute and the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which have ties to a network of foundations and groups financed by billionaire right-wing oil tycoon Charles Koch (estimated net worth: $64.9 billion ). All lower courts, including the D.C. Court of Appeals, relying on Chevron precedent, the verdict was, as expected, in favor of the government and against the plaintiffs. This paved the way for the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court to take over the case and use it to overturn it Chevron.

According to New York Times, Chevron vs. Natural Resources Defense Council is one of the most cited precedents in American law, the basis for 70 Supreme Court decisions and some 17,000 lower court decisions. The Supreme Court has already overturned major precedents in each of the last three terms: on abortion in 2022, on affirmative action in 2023, and now on the authority of administrative agencies.

The court, unelected, with appointed judges who serve life terms, epitomizes the deeply undemocratic nature of so-called “American democracy.” Its most openly fascist members, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, are both deeply implicated in Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021, coup attempt. They are also the most corrupt, taking the first and third largest amounts of bribes from right-wing corporate billionaires on the court, which Fix the Court reports has received a combined $3 million in gifts over the past two decades. Thomas, a senior judge, is responsible for $2.4 million of that total based on documented bribes alone.

The destruction of federal oversight of business and the destruction of regulatory constraints on the profit-making and enrichment of the corporate elite are part of an ongoing and accelerating social counterrevolution. In essence, the legal and governmental superstructure of capitalism, particularly in the United States, is being adapted to the underlying oligarchic character of the economy. Previous reforms, associated with mass working-class struggles and in themselves limited and grossly inadequate, are being rejected in accordance with the increasingly parasitic character of the American capitalist economy and its domination by vast blocs of capital.

Buoyed by the loss of global industrial supremacy and massive debt, the crisis-ridden American ruling class is turning more and more ruthlessly toward global imperialist war and plunder abroad and class war and dictatorship against its principal enemy, the American working class.

as World Socialist Website The editorial board explained in its New Year’s statement for 2024:

The United States is home to the largest concentration of billionaires in the world, whose combined wealth, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, rose to $5.2 trillion in November 2023, the highest amount ever recorded. In the third quarter of 2023, the richest 10 percent of Americans owned two-thirds of total wealth, while the poorest half owned only 2.6 percent.

Even more significant is the scale of the assets controlled by the giant banks and financial institutions. JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest bank, controls $3.7 trillion in assets, more than the GDP of the United Kingdom. Private equity firms Vanguard and BlackRock control a combined $17.1 trillion in assets. Behind the crumbling facade of a two-party system, the American oligarchy exercises dictatorial power over society.

Without trying to hide my enthusiasm, “Wall Street Journal” announced that Friday’s Supreme Court ruling was invalidated Chevron in brilliant words:

The Supreme Court struck down a 40-year-old federal regulatory framework, expanding the power of federal judges to overturn agency decisions on environmental, consumer and workplace safety policies, among other things…

While seemingly neutral, in practice the decision offers another tool for business interests seeking conservative federal courts to block environmental, consumer or workplace safety regulations they deem too costly.

On the other hand, the American Public Health Association and the American Cancer Society released a joint statement on Friday saying:

We anticipate that today’s ruling will cause significant disruptions to publicly funded health insurance programs, negatively impact the stability of the nation’s health care and food and drug regulatory systems, and the health and well-being of the patients and consumers we serve.

Stephen Hall, legal director of Better Markets, which is calling for tighter regulation, said:

This decision threatens to return the United States to the 1910s, when the government had very limited ability to protect America’s health, safety and welfare.

Two other rulings released last week highlight the Supreme Court’s pro-corporate, anti-social agenda of attacking government regulatory powers. On Thursday, a right-wing majority overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ability to enforce financial market regulations through internal tribunals before expert administrative judges. Instead, the court ruled that the SEC must sue the accused infringers in federal court before a jury.

That same day, the court in a 5-4 vote halted an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative to reduce smog-causing pollutants from power plants and factories that seep across state lines. The court sided with states, trade associations and companies that have asked for a halt to the agency’s “good neighbor” plan while they challenge it in a lower court.