Article · Administrative Law

The Death of Deference: What Loper Bright Changed and What It Did Not

5 U.S.C. § 706

Type
Article
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2025-07-17
Topic
Administrative Law

In 2024 the Supreme Court overruled Chevron, and a great deal of commentary declared the administrative state transformed. This article separates what actually changed from what did not. It explains what Chevron deference was, why it was narrower in practice than its reputation suggested, and what Loper Bright substituted, which is independent judicial judgment informed by Skidmore respect and by express congressional delegations that courts must still police for reasonableness. It then covers the companion decisions of the same term that matter at least as much, including Corner Post's restart of the limitations clock for regulatory challenges, Jarkesy's Seventh Amendment limit on agency-imposed civil penalties, Ohio v. EPA's demanding application of arbitrary and capricious review, and Axon's route around agency proceedings for structural constitutional claims. Later sections explain why arbitrary and capricious review under State Farm was always the more consequential doctrine, why the major questions doctrine does independent work, what the practical consequences are for rulemaking practice and for regulated parties, and what a lawyer should actually do differently now.

The Death of Deference: What Loper Bright Changed and What It Did Not

Administrative Law > Agency Practice | Published 17 July 2025 - Updated 22 June 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

In brief. Chevron is gone, and that matters. But agencies rarely lost under Chevron step two anyway, and they routinely lose under arbitrary and capricious review. The most consequential change of 2024 may not be the death of deference at all — it may be Corner Post, which restarted the clock on challenges to rules that had been on the books for decades.

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