Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Res. Def. Council
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 29, 1984 Decided June 25, 1984
Full case name	Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., et al.
Docket nos.	82-1005 82-1247 82-1591
Citations	467 U.S. 837 (more) 104 S. Ct. 2778; 81 L. Ed. 2d 694; 21 ERC (BNA) 1049; 14 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,507; 52 U.S.L.W. 4845; 1984 U.S. LEXIS 118
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Natural Resources Defense Council v. Gorsuch, 685 F.2d 718 (D.C. Cir. 1982), cert. granted sub nom. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 461 U.S. 956 (1983).
Subsequent	Rehearing denied, 468 U.S. 1227 (1984).
Holding
Courts must defer to administrative agency interpretations of the authority granted to them by Congress (1) where the intent of Congress was ambiguous and (2) where the interpretation was reasonable or permissible.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinion
Majority	Stevens, joined by Burger, Brennan, White, Blackmun, Powell
Marshall, Rehnquist and O'Connor took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 (Pub. L. No. 95-95, 91 Stat. 685); 40 C.F.R. 51.18(j)(1)(i)-(ii) (1983)

Administrative law of the United States
General
Rulemaking Notice of proposed rulemaking Adjudication Administrative law judge Code of Federal Regulations Federal Register
Statutory framework
Administrative Procedure Act Freedom of Information Act NEPA GSA NEA IGA RFA PRA UMRA CRA FVRA
Regulatory coordination
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrative Conference Executive orders Cost–benefit analysis (Executive Order 12866)
Judicial review of agency action
Arbitrary and capricious State Farm Chevron deference Auer deference Committed to agency discretion Due process Londoner Bi-Metallic Goldberg Mathews Exhaustion Major questions doctrine Nationwide injunction Ripeness Abbott Labs Standing Lujan
Separation of powers
Appointments Clause Freytag Noel Canning Congressional oversight Authorization Organic statute Appropriation Hearings Senate confirmation Independent agencies Humphrey's Executor Seila Law Unitary executive theory Legislative veto Chadha Nondelegation
Related areas of law (and agencies)
Antitrust and competition FTC CPSC CFPB Banking Treasury OCC FDIC FRB Communication FCC Energy DOE FERC Environment EPA FWS Food FDA CDC Health care HHS Immigration DHS EOIR Labor DOL NLRB Patent/trademark PTO Securities SEC CFTC Taxation IRS TC Trade DOC ITC Transportation DOT STB NTSB Social Security SSA
Related topics
Constitutional law Statutory interpretation
v t e

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that set forth the legal test for when U.S. federal courts must defer to a government agency's interpretation of a law or statute.^[1] The decision articulated a doctrine known as "Chevron deference".^[2] Chevron deference consists of a two-part test that is deferential to government agencies: first, whether Congress has spoken directly to the precise issue at question, and second, "whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute."

The decision involved a legal challenge to a change in the U.S. government's interpretation of the word "source" in the Clean Air Act of 1963. The Act did not precisely define what constituted a "source" of air pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initially defined "source" to cover essentially any significant change or addition to a plant or factory. In 1981, the EPA changed its definition to mean only an entire plant or factory. This allowed companies to build new projects without going through the EPA's lengthy new review process if they simultaneously modified other parts of their plant to reduce emissions so that the overall change in the plant's emissions was zero. Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmentalist advocacy group, successfully challenged the legality of the EPA's new definition.^[3]

Chevron is one of the most important decisions in U.S. administrative law. It has been cited in thousands of cases since its issuance in 1984.^[4] Thirty-nine years later, in May 2023, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to reevaluate Chevron in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451. A decision is expected in the first half of 2024.^[5]