How Loper Bright Is Changing the Courts

In this episode of Unwritten Law, NCLA President and Chief Legal Officer Mark Chenoweth and Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione discuss the growing real-world impact of the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Loper Bright and Relentless—the cases that ended Chevron deference and restored the judiciary’s independent role in interpreting federal statutes.

As the two-year anniversary of the decisions approaches, Mark and John examine several major lower-court rulings already shaped by the new legal framework. The discussion focuses on a recent Eighth Circuit decision striking down an FCC rule on “digital discrimination” in broadband access, where the court held that the agency exceeded the authority Congress actually granted in statute.

The episode also explores another FCC dispute involving a proposed media merger and the agency’s attempt to avoid judicial review while allowing the merger to proceed. Mark and John explain how courts are increasingly applying Loper Bright to ensure agencies follow the text Congress enacted—not policy preferences agencies wish Congress had adopted.

The conversation highlights how the end of Chevron deference is reshaping administrative law across industries, why the effects are not limited to any one political party or industry, and how the decisions are restoring courts to their constitutional role in deciding what the law means.