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Page Number: 43.0

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BIDEN v. NEBRASKA 

BARRETT, J., concurring 

“unique  political  history”:  the  FDA’s  longstanding  disa-
vowal of authority to regulate it, Congress’s creation of “a
distinct  regulatory  scheme  for  tobacco  products,”  and  the 
tobacco industry’s “significant” role in “the American econ-
omy.”  Id., at 159–160.  In light of those considerations, we
concluded that “Congress could not have intended to dele-
gate a decision of such economic and political significance
to an agency in so cryptic a fashion.”  Id., at 160. 

We  have  also  been  “[s]keptical  of  mismatches”  between 
broad “invocations of power by agencies” and relatively nar-
row  “statutes  that  purport  to  delegate  that  power.”    In re 
MCP  No.  165,  OSHA,  Interim  Final  Rule:  Covid–19  Vac-
cination and Testing, 20 F. 4th 264, 272 (CA6 2021) (Sutton,
C. J.,  dissenting  from  denial  of  initial  hearing  en  banc). 
Just as an instruction to “pick up dessert” is not permission
to buy a four-tier wedding cake, Congress’s use of a “subtle
device” is not authorization for agency action of “enormous
importance.”  MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. American 
Telephone  &  Telegraph  Co.,  512  U. S.  218,  231  (1994);  cf. 
Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U. S. 457, 
468  (2001)  (Congress  does  not  “hide  elephants  in  mouse-
holes”).  This principle explains why the Centers for Disease
Control  and  Prevention’s  (CDC’s)  general  authority  to
“ ‘prevent the . . . spread of communicable diseases’ ” did not 
authorize  a  nationwide  eviction  moratorium.  Alabama 
Assn. of Realtors, 594 U. S., at ___–___, ___ (slip op., at 2–3, 
6).  The statute, we observed, was a “wafer-thin reed” that 
could not support the assertion of “such sweeping power.” 
Id., at ___ (slip op., at  7).  Likewise, in West  Virginia, we 
held  that  a  “little-used  backwater”  provision in  the  Clean 
Air  Act  could  not  justify  an  Environmental  Protection 
Agency  (EPA)  rule  that  would  “restructur[e]  the  Nation’s
overall mix of electricity generation.”  597 U. S., at ___, ___ 
(slip op., at 16, 26).

Another  telltale  sign  that  an  agency  may  have  trans-
gressed its statutory authority is when it regulates outside