RSVP | NCLA Lunch and Law | Why SCOTUS Is Putting Off Future of Chevron Deference Cases

Please join us for NCLA's Lunch and Law speaker series: Why SCOTUS Is Putting Off Future of Chevron Deference Cases: Buffington, Aposhian, and Gun Owners of America Held Over Until October

Event Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm/ET

Event Description:

Join us in person or via Zoom for our next Lunch and Law to discuss how three cases pending before SCOTUS will impact the future of Chevron deference.

Despite making SCOTUSblog’s “Petitions We’re Watching” on multiple occasions this term, the U.S. Supreme Court failed to act on three different cert petitions in which NCLA asks to reconsider Chevron deference.

In Aposhian v. Garland and Gun Owners of America v. Garland, NCLA is asking the high court to address the discord in lower courts regarding the application of Chevron deference to agency statutory interpretations that criminalize otherwise lawful conduct. In Buffington v. McDonough, NCLA challenged a Veteran's Administration interpretation of its statute that would capriciously deny disability payments to a veteran who served his country honorably for almost a decade.

The lower courts determined that the applicable statute was ambiguous and granted Chevron deference to VA’s interpretation, despite a well-established interpretive norm mandating that ambiguous veterans’ benefits statutes are to be interpreted in favor of the veteran.

Chevron deference requires judges to ignore their own best judgment in favor of government agencies.

Any one of these cases would have been a strong vehicle for SCOTUS to make clear that Chevron deference is wrong and should be abandoned. But that didn't happen. SCOTUS didn't deny cert, but it didn't grant cert, either. Instead, it held these petitions over until the next term.

What does this mean for the future of Chevron deference?

Join NCLA President and General Counsel Mark Chenoweth and our expert panelists, NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Rich Samp and renowned appellate litigators Roman Martinez from Latham & Watkins and John Tienken from Cooper Kirk in a discussion regarding the curious fate of Chevron deference pending these three cert petitions.

*Catered lunch will be served for in-person attendees.