Full name: Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Harry BlackmunWilliam J. Brennan, Jr.Warren E. BurgerLewis F. Powell, Jr.John Paul StevensByron WhiteThurgood MarshallSandra Day O'ConnorWilliam Rehnquist Note: Court justices do not represent any political party. The color of each judge's name represents the political party of the president who appointed the judge.
Click here for a list of all Supreme Court justices
Agencies were given flexibility - for better or worse
This court decision gave federal agencies flexibility to implement rules as they see best.
It created a set of criteria to determine the authority of an agency authority an agency has to issue a specific regulation.
o If the law doesn't specify how it should be implemented, the agency's actions may be a "permissible" interpretation of the law - and a court must allow it.
What was the case about?
The Clean Air Act required states that were not meeting air quality standards to tightly regulate new or or modified stationary pollution sources.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule stating that if a plant modified one piece of equipment but total emissions from the plant did not increase, the plant would be exempt from the tightened regulation.
The rule was challenged by environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They claimed that the exemption violated the intent of the Clean Air Act.
This decision is often quoted
This ruling became known as the Chevron Doctrine.