Eugene Scalia former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Trump Administration and previously the Chief Legal Officer of the Department of Labor considers that concerns over impending litigation are overstated following the invalidation of the Chevron Deference by SCOTUS in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo.  The Chevron Doctrine established over 40 years ago allowed administrative agencies including the EPA to interpret federal laws with the judiciary deferring to the opinions of administrators in Agencies possessing specific technical, economic or procedural expertise.

Scalia considers that federal agencies will henceforth be more conservative in their action, recognizing that regulations and rules are now subject to challenge and that enabling legislation will be scrutinized to avoid agency overreach. Scalia believes that federal regulators will “be more careful than they’ve been in recent years to make sure they are acting within the authority that Congress gave them and to make sure that they are given thoughtful consideration to what the public tells them their concerns are.”

Basically the demise of the Chevron Deference will have a constraining effect on regulatory agencies, consistent with conservative opposition to the “nanny state.” Implications for the Loper Bright Decision include proposed and issued rules by the AMS under the Stockyards and Packers Act, the FSIS with respect to Salmonella contamination of poultry products and the EPA on the proposed WOTUS Rule.