SCOTUS to Revisit Precedent on Agency Deference. This week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case that will invite the Court to overrule its 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council requiring courts to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. In Loper Bright Enterprises, a group of fishing companies is challenging a rule issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) requiring the companies to pay the costs of federal observers who travel aboard fishing vessels to monitor compliance with NMFS regulations. The underlying statute, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, authorizes the requirement of onboard monitors but is silent with regard to who pays them. Relying on Chevron, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit deferred to NMFS’s interpretation of the (silent) statutory language, thereby requiring the fishing companies to pay for the federal monitors aboard the vessels. Many stakeholders believe that Chevron deference has incorrectly shifted too much unchecked power to the executive branch. As such, the present case will have major implications for stakeholders in all contexts and for employers appealing actions taken by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and other agencies. A decision is expected sometime in the first...
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Tennessee doctor has pleaded guilty to committing millions of dollars’ worth of Medicare fraud through her Brentwood optometry practice. Helen Boerman, 48, pleaded guilt...