Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1041_0861.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  575 U. S. ____ (2015) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

grant  additional  procedural  rights  in  the exercise  of  their 
discretion,  but  reviewing  courts  are  generally  not  free  to
impose  them  if  the  agencies  have  not  chosen  to  grant
them.”  Ibid.
  The  Paralyzed  Veterans  doctrine  creates  just  such  a 
judge-made  procedural  right:  the  right  to  notice  and  an 
opportunity  to  comment  when  an  agency  changes  its 
interpretation  of  one  of  the  regulations  it  enforces.    That 
requirement may be wise policy.  Or it may not.  Regard-
less,  imposing  such  an  obligation  is  the  responsibility  of 
Congress  or  the  administrative  agencies,  not  the  courts.
We  trust  that  Congress  weighed  the  costs  and  benefits  of 
placing  more  rigorous  procedural  restrictions  on  the  issu-
ance of interpretive rules.  See id., at 523 (when Congress
enacted  the  APA,  it  “settled  long-continued  and  hard-
fought  contentions,  and  enact[ed]  a  formula  upon  which 
opposing  social  and  political  forces  have  come  to  rest”
(internal quotation marks omitted)).  In the end, Congress
decided to  adopt standards that permit agencies to prom-
ulgate  freely  such  rules—whether  or  not  they  are  con-
sistent with earlier interpretations.  That the D. C. Circuit 
would have struck the balance differently does not permit
that  court  or  this  one  to  overturn  Congress’  contrary
judgment.  Cf. Law v. Siegel, 571 U. S. ___, ___ (2014) (slip 
op., at 11). 

III 
MBA offers several reasons why the Paralyzed Veterans 

doctrine should be upheld.  They are not persuasive. 

A 
MBA  begins  its  defense  of  the  Paralyzed  Veterans  doc-
trine by attempting to bolster the D. C. Circuit’s reading of
the  APA.  “Paralyzed  Veterans,”  MBA  contends,  “simply
acknowledges the reality that where an agency significantly 
alters  a  prior,  definitive  interpretation  of  a  regulation,  it