Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
Page Number: 44.0

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

7 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

deemed  that  claimed  authority  “a  power  of  supreme  deli-
cacy and importance,” given the role railroads then played
in the Nation’s life.  Id., at 505.  Therefore, the Court ex-
plained, a special rule applied: 

“That Congress has transferred such a power to any ad-
ministrative body is not to be presumed or implied from
any doubtful and uncertain language.  The words and 
phrases efficacious to make such a delegation of power
are  well  understood,  and  have  been  frequently  used, 
and if Congress had intended to grant such a power to
the [agency], it cannot  be doubted that it would have 
used  language  open  to  no  misconstruction,  but  clear 
and direct.”  Ibid. (emphasis added). 

With  the  explosive  growth  of  the  administrative  state
since 1970, the major questions doctrine soon took on spe-
cial importance.2  In 1980, this Court held it “unreasonable 
to assume” that Congress gave an agency “unprecedented
power[s]” in the “absence of a clear [legislative] mandate.” 
Industrial  Union  Dept.,  AFL–CIO  v.  American  Petroleum 
Institute,  448  U. S.  607,  645  (plurality  opinion).    In  the 
years that followed, the Court routinely enforced “the non-
delegation  doctrine”  through  “the  interpretation  of  statu-

—————— 

2 In the 1960s and 1970s, Congress created dozens of new federal ad-
ministrative agencies.  See W. Howell & D. Lewis, Agencies by Presiden-
tial Design, 64 J. of Politics 1095, 1105 (Nov. 2002).  Between 1970 and 
1990, the Code of Federal Regulations grew from about 44,000 pages to 
about  106,000.    See  C.  DeMuth,  Can  the  Administrative  State  be 
Tamed?, 8 J. Legal Analysis 121, 126 (Feb. 2016).  Today, Congress is-
sues “roughly two hundred to four hundred laws” every year, while “fed-
eral administrative agencies adopt something on the order of three thou-
sand to five thousand final rules.”  R. Cass, Rulemaking Then and Now: 
From  Management  to  Lawmaking,  28  Geo.  Mason  L. Rev.  683,  694 
(2021).  Beyond that, agencies regularly “produce thousands, if not mil-
lions,” of guidance documents which, as a practical matter, bind affected
parties  too.  See  C. Coglianese,  Illuminating  Regulatory  Guidance,  9
Mich. J. Env. & Admin. L. 243, 247–248 (2020).