The United States Supreme Court recently stymied recent cyber security regulations and plans. To fight the proliferation of cyber security threats, President Biden’s administration has relied on creative uses of existing laws to protect critical infrastructure from cyber security threats. However, the Supreme Court has now blunted that tool in the administration’s toolbox, and the future of US cyber security regulations in the near term is murky.
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court overruled its well-known precedent in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, where it created the doctrine known as the Chevron Deference.
The Chevron Deference required courts to defer to a federal agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous issue or question. Where the agency was specifically empowered by Congress to fill the gaps in legislation, it was a tough standard. Agency decisions were binding on the courts unless procedurally defective, arbitrary or capricious in substance, or manifestly contrary to the statute. Not any longer.
In a 6-3 decision along party lines, the Loper Court ruling eliminated the requirement that courts defer to an…
