The Supreme Court in recent days has issued a series of rulings that collectively have the potential to neuter a broad array of federal agencies, or tie them up in endless litigation that prevents them from carrying out their missions.
The court has been chipping away at agencies’ administrative powers for years, but the issues came to a head in the last week as it delivered three decisions that have upended decades of precedent agencies have leaned out to flex their regulatory muscle. Now, scholars, dissenting justices and agencies themselves warn, agencies could be severely constrained as they attempt to implement laws and exercise their powers.
