Supreme Court Overrules Chevron in Significant Administrative Law Decision 

On June 28, the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron decision, a 40-year-old judicial doctrine that instructed judges to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. The 6-3 decision divided the court along ideological lines.

While there are no immediate impacts to overturning Chevron, the decision is likely to lead to more litigation against federal agency regulations and increased uncertainty for many industries, especially when combined with other recent Supreme Court decisions. We expect there could be litigation around many existing regulations impacting health care, including the Affordable Care Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the No Surprises Act, the 340B drug program, Section 1557 nondiscrimination requirements, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actions. Post-Chevron, federal lawmakers will be pressured to be much more explicit in their legislative language and federal agencies may be more circumspect in their requirements and slower in their drafting processes, while courts must exercise their independent judgement in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.