Chevron doctrine overturned: Republicans, big business praise Supreme Court decision

• Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the Supreme Court's overturning of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
• The Chevron doctrine for 40 years held that judges should defer to federal agencies' interpretation of the law when a statute's language isn't clear.
• The new ruling limits the power of federal agency regulators.

Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the Supreme Court decision Friday overturning the so-called Chevron Doctrine, which for four decades led judges to defer to how federal agencies interpreted a law when its language was not clear.

GOP lawmakers said the 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court undid a precedent that they argued had unjustly strengthened the power of unelected government officials.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, "The Constitution vests Congress with the sole authority to make law."

"After forty years of Chevron deference, the Supreme Court made it clear today that our system of government leaves no room for an unelected bureaucracy to co-opt this authority for itself," McConnell said. "The days of federal agencies filling in the legislative blanks are rightly over."

And Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark, in a statement, said, "Today's decision is an important course correction that will help create a more predictable and stable regulatory environment."

Clark added that the Supreme Court's prior Chevron rule "allowed each new presidential administration to advance their political agendas through flip-flopping regulations and not provide consistent rules of the road for businesses to navigate, plan, and invest in the future."

Jeff Holmstead, a lawyer at the Bracewell firm who previously served as Air Office