“Chevron is OvertuRned” – so We Must be Mobilized!

Today, the US Supreme Court imposed a major setback on federal agencies’ ability to apply their expertise in the name of public safety and environmental protection. We at the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life are pained, and outraged – and, redoubled in our commitment to Jewish advocacy toward sustainability and justice.

In declaring that “Chevron is overturned”, a 6-3 majority just reversed a four-decade judicial precedent of “deference” to the accumulated knowledge of agencies and regulators. Congressional mandates always come first, of course, though in implementation, countless small questions routinely emerge.  Since the 1984 “Chevron vs NRDC” decision, "deference" has been shown to the public servants with relevant content knowledge, in the executive branch agencies, to clarify these routine matters. It makes sense for the experts to do this.  Only those hell-bent on deregulation would want it to fall on the already overworked legal minds of our judicial branch, ill-equipped as they are to manage all the factual and scientific minutiae behind each decision, on the full range of topics which come before the bench.  
 
The case in point concerned oversight of the herring fishery, and a technical matter regarding how and through whom monitors’ salaries should be paid. The public good is squarely on the side of a well-regulated fishery which can be sustainable for decades to come, and can continue to support a vibrant aquatic ecosystem - yet those favoring the private good of industry exploited a lack of clarity in the congressional statute, and a shift in the ideological composition of the Court, to bring about today’s reversal. This ruling will have huge repercussions: by embedding unfortunate mistrust of government agencies into the law of the land, numerous needed regulations will henceforth be slowed down or stopped up in an over-clogged system.  People, both today and into the future - and fish, and other living creatures - will be harmed, and imperiled.
 
Jewish values, by contrast, line up with the 1984 court, much more than with its 2024 incarnation. We start with a belief in truth (emet), and in facts.  The halachic (Jewish legal) process is filled with such ‘deference,’ where rabbinic jurists who know the legal and moral precedents routinely turn to scientists and engineers and others to fill in the knowledge-gap. As a result, the final process is better, fuller, truer, and more enduring. So it is in the Talmud; and so it was in these United States, until today. Zichrono livracha, may the memory of Chevron Deference be a blessing – and may its spirit live on
 
Another core Jewish value is humility, anavah, which is commonly understood as “taking up the right amount of space,” neither too much nor too little, while leaving appropriate space for others. Justice Elana Kagan’s dissent today echoes that value; in her description of today’s ruling, “a rule of judicial humility gives way to a rule of judicial hubris.” She added that the majority decision “disdains restraint, and grasps for power.”
 
“Restraint” is indeed what is called for.  Many years ago, COEJL drafted and circulated a powerful rabbinic letter entitled “Wonder and Restraint” – starting with our awe or ‘radical amazement’ at the brilliance of Creation; insisting on an ethic of restraint, lest our own actions remake Creation in our image rather than that of the Divine; and calling us to accountability in meeting our many obligations as stewards of Creation, good neighbors to one another in this global village; and good ancestors to the generations which will follow us. It remains timely reading: 

Resources - COALITION on the ENVIRONMENT and JEWISH LIFE (coejl.org)

If the Supreme Court’s majority will not show restraint – and if Congress remains unwilling or unable to pass clear forward-thinking legislation – then we, the citizens, must bring our dearly-held values more clearly into the public square, and we must advocate and agitate and organize for positive change like the world depended on it. For indeed, the world does depend on us, stepping forward.  “It is not upon you to complete the task,” wrote Rabbi Meir in Mishnah Avot some 1900 years ago, “but neither are you free to desist from it.” Let us move ahead together with renewed wonder; renewed restraint; and renewed commitment.