Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-451_7m58.pdf
Page Number: 43

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

35 

Opinion of the Court 

Inc., 573 U. S. 258, 266 (2014) (quoting Dickerson v. United 
States,  530  U. S.  428,  443  (2000)).    That  is  not  enough  to 
justify overruling a statutory precedent. 

* 

* 

* 

The  dissent  ends  by  quoting  Chevron:  “ ‘Judges  are  not 
experts in the field.’ ”  Post, at 31 (quoting 467 U. S., at 865).
That depends, of course, on what the “field” is.  If it is legal 
interpretation, that has been, “emphatically,” “the province
and duty of the judicial department” for at least 221 years. 
Marbury,  1  Cranch,  at  177.    The  rest  of  the  dissent’s  se-
lected epigraph is that judges “ ‘are not part of either politi-
cal  branch.’ ”    Post,  at  31  (quoting  Chevron,  467  U. S.,  at 
865).  Indeed.  Judges have always been expected to apply 
their  “judgment”  independent  of  the  political  branches 
when interpreting the laws those branches enact.  The Fed-
eralist No. 78, at 523.  And one of those laws, the APA, bars 
judges  from  disregarding  that  responsibility  just  because 
an Executive Branch agency views a statute differently. 

Chevron  is  overruled.  Courts  must  exercise  their  inde-
pendent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted 
within its statutory authority, as the APA requires.  Careful 
attention to the judgment of the Executive Branch may help 
inform that inquiry.  And when a  particular statute dele-
gates authority to an agency consistent with constitutional 
limits, courts must respect the delegation, while ensuring
that the agency acts within it.  But courts need not and un-
der the APA may not defer to an agency interpretation of 
the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.

Because the D. C. and First Circuits relied on Chevron in 
deciding whether to uphold the Rule, their judgments are
vacated,  and  the  cases  are  remanded  for  further  proceed-
ings consistent with this opinion. 

It is so ordered.