American Horse Council: Chevron Doctrine Ruling Has Implications Beyond HISA – Paulick Report

Why should you care about the Chevron Doctrine?

You may have heard back in June that the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron Doctrine. So why should the horse industry care?

The reversal of the Chevron Doctrine makes all regulations more susceptible to legal challenge. This includes regulations that benefit the equestrian industry, such as those related to disease reporting, import/export, and transportation.

The Chevron Doctrine was a 40-year-old precedent that required lower court judges to follow “reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes.” In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said that “it is the province and the duty of the judiciary to say what the law is.” That means courts, not regulatory agencies, are now responsible for deciding how a law is enforced when the situation is unclear.

One possible effect of overturning the Chevron Doctrine is that if future administrations want to change policy, they will likely take the matter to Congress to avoid any ambiguity. This will make it harder to make decisions quickly because they will have to go through the entire legislative process.

The concern is that decisions by judges, not agencies, especially at the local level, may not have the experience needed to interpret the intent of the regulations if they are challenged in court. You could have a judge with no experience in animal husbandry trying to interpret environmental regulations about manure, or someone with no experience in pharmacy trying to interpret regulations about veterinary drugs.