UCLA School of Law

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, of course, overruled Chevron v. NRDC, ending judicial deference to administrative agencies conferred by ambiguous statutory language. The opinion also acknowledged that in many statutory provisions, Congress delegates discretionary authority to administrative agencies. If so, agencies rather than courts have primary responsibility for interpreting the statutory language. Professor Chris Walker has called the paragraph in the text describing such policymaking delegation as the most important in the opinion. Understanding it calls for careful consideration of the cases and statues it cites. The examination of these citations demonstrates that they do not offer the kind of guidance for which we may have hoped, much less expected.