(The Center Square) — Florida Republicans are praising a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 40-year-old legal doctrine that gave more power to federal regulators.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took to X to show his support of overturning the doctrine known as “Chevron Deference,” which came from a 1984 Supreme Court ruling involving the oil company Chevron.
Under the Chevron deference, judges had to defer to the interpretations of U.S. laws by federal agencies if the law was ambiguous.
“The Chevron doctrine distorted the constitutional separation of powers and helped create the unaccountable, bloated administrative state,” DeSantis posted on X.
“This decision is a necessary corrective to decades of wayward constitutional jurisprudence but is, by itself, not enough to restore the proper roles of the federal government’s three branches, which will require Congress to take its obligations under Article I of the Constitution more seriously by using its law-making and spending authority to rein in the federal bureaucracy,” DeSantis said in his post.
During a news conference Monday in Pensacola, DeSantis said Chevron empowered the administrative state and has helped bureaucracy grow.
“The Chevron deference really empowered the administrative state, it empowered the bureaucracy, and it helped the bureaucracy grow to the extent that it has, really uninterrupted for many many decades,” DeSantis said.
Florida’s chief financial officer and state fire marshal Jimmy Patronis, also posted on X that getting rid of the Chevron doctrine puts citizens on a more equal footing.
“Nice to see the Federal Govt catching up with Florida! The 2018 CRC ended Chevron doctrine in Florida. Getting rid of Chevron takes a sledgehammer to the administrative state; puts citizens on equal footing with agencies in administrative proceedings and court challenges,” Patronis wrote on X.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark said in a statement that the Supreme Court’s decision was an “important course correction.”
“The Supreme Court’s previous deference rule allowed each new presidential administration to advance their political agendas through flip-flopping regulations and not provide consistent rules of the road for businesses to navigate, plan, and invest in the future. The Chamber will continue to urge courts to faithfully interpret statutes that govern federal agencies and to ensure federal agencies act in a reasonable and lawful manner,” Clark said in a statement.
