A Chevron case to be heard by SCOTUS
In Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council I discussed a little about Chevron deference. This is the case law that allows the federal government to say “We are the experts, our interpretation of the law is always correct.”
I am not qualified to know whether the original decision was a good decision or not, I believe it was not. Regardless, it has been abused for decades at this point.
Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc v. Gina Raimondo, 21-5166 (D.C. Cir. 2022). This case has nothing to do with the Second Amendment directly, but it holds a great deal of potential for reigning in the ATF and other federal agencies.
The gist of the case is that congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) in 1976. The MSA extended the regulatory reach of the “National Marine Fisheries Service”. It was passed to to conserve and manage the fishery resources…of the United States
— 16 U.S.C. § 1801 (b)(1).
This is the law that is designed to stop overfishing of territorial waters of the US.
In September 2018, the NMFS submitted the Omnibus Amendment to the Service. This opened a commenting period. The commenting period ended and the Omnibus Amendment to the Service was approved. The Final Rule was published in February 2020.
Sort of like the ATF did bump stocks and pistol braces. They publish the proposed rule. Open for comments, then do whatever they wanted to do in the first place.
At issue in the Omnibus Amendment is that the NMFS decided that they were going to make the fishing boats pay to have an inspector on board and to force the fishing boats to accept an inspector. Space is at a premium aboard ships, so having a deadhead onboard worsens it for everyone. In addition, the government man isn’t actually doing any work. All he does is run his clipboard looking for ways to ding the boat.
This inspector is paid a percentage of the value of the catch.
In other words, the government gets to force a fishing boat to take an inspector onboard and the fishing boat has the pleasure of paying that inspector to eat their food, take up space, and in general to be a government busybody.