On September 7, 2023, at the ABA Business Law Section Fall Meeting in Chicago, Alan Kaplinsky, Ballard Spahr Senior Counsel in the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Group, will moderate a program, “U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Chevron Deference: What the SCOTUS Decision Could Mean for CFPB, FTC, and Federal Banking Agency Regulations.”  The speakers are Professor Jonathan Masur of the University of Chicago Law School and Lauren Campisi of Hinshaw Culbertson.  In addition to consumer financial services and banking lawyers, all business lawyers who have a regulatory practice will find the program of interest.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., the “Chevron framework” has typically been invoked by courts when reviewing a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute.  The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case next Term, Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. Raimondo, in which the petitioners are directly challenging the continued viability of the Chevron framework.  Under the Chevron framework, a court must use a two-step analysis to determine if it must defer to an agency’s interpretation.  In step one, the court looks at whether the statute directly addresses the precise question before the court.  If the statute is ambiguous or silent, the court will proceed to step two and determine whether the agency’s interpretation is reasonable.  If it determines the interpretation is reasonable, the court will ordinarily defer to the agency’s interpretation.

A substantial portion of the program will be devoted to the potential implications of a Supreme Court decision reversing or significantly limiting Chevron, including the implications for regulations that courts have held to be valid based on Chevron.

Background on Loper and more information about the issues that will be discussed during the program is available here.  Registration information is available here.