Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-58_i425.pdf
Page Number: 28.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

11 

 GORSUCH, J., concurring
GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment 

“to put to one side; discard; dismiss” and “to reject from con-
sideration;  overrule”);  Webster’s  New  World  College  Dic-
tionary 1329 (5th ed. 2016) (defining “set aside” as “to set
apart” and “to discard; dismiss; reject”).

There are many reasons to think §706(2) uses “set aside”
to mean “disregard” rather than “vacate.”  For one thing, at
the  time  of  the  APA’s  adoption,  conventional  wisdom  re-
garded  agency  rules  as  “quasi-legislative”  in  nature.  See 
Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602, 624, 
628 (1935); see also D. Currie & F. Goodman, Judicial Re-
view of Federal Administrative Action:  Quest for the Opti-
mum Forum, 75 Colum. L. Rev. 1, 40 (1975).  And federal 
courts have never enjoyed the power to “vacate” legislation. 
Instead, they possess “little more than the negative power 
to  disregard  an  unconstitutional  enactment.”    Massachu-
setts  v.  Mellon,  262  U.  S.  447,  488  (1923).    Reading  “set  
aside” to mean “disregard” ensures parallel judicial treat-
ment of statutes and rules. 

For another thing, the term “set aside” appears in §706 of 
the APA.  That section is titled “Scope of review,” a title it 
has borne since the law’s enactment in 1946.  60 Stat. 243. 
And ordinarily, when we think about the scope of a court’s
review, we do not think about the remedies the court may
authorize  after  reaching  its  judgment  on  the  merits.    In-
stead, we think about the court’s decisional process leading 
up to that judgment.  Understanding “set aside” as a com-
mand to disregard an unlawful rule in the decisional pro-
cess  fits  perfectly  within  this  design.    Understanding  the
phrase as authorizing a remedy does not.

What follows in §706 appears to confirm the point.  The 
statute begins by providing that, “[t]o the extent necessary
to decision and when presented, the reviewing court shall 
decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional
and statutory provisions, and determine the meaning and 
applicability of the terms of an agency action.”  Exactly as