Opinion ID: 206582
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Presence of Intervening Authority

Text: The essential issue on appeal is whether this case is governed by our decision in Salman Ranch. A panel of this court is ordinarily bound to follow a prior precedential decision unless there are intervening circumstances, such as new controlling authority. Tex. Am. Oil Corp. v. Dep't of Energy, 44 F.3d 1557, 1561 (Fed. Cir.1995) (en banc) (This court applies the rule that earlier decisions prevail unless overruled by the court en banc, or by other controlling authority such as intervening statutory change or Supreme Court decision.). The new Treasury regulations cannot, of course, change the Tax Code. But they may reflect the Treasury Department's exercise of authority granted by Congress to interpret an ambiguity in that code. Where an executive department, entrusted with interpretive authority, promulgates statutory interpretations that are reasonable within the circumstances established by Congress, then the courts must defer to that interpretation. Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). There is at this point little doubt that the Treasury Department has a Congressional mandate to interpret ambiguities in the Tax Code, and that Treasury regulations, when promulgated, are to be interpreted under the standards set forth in Chevron. Mayo Found. for Med. Educ. & Research v. United States, 562 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 704, 713-15, 178 L.Ed.2d 588 (2011); see also United States v. Mead, 533 U.S. 218, 229, 121 S.Ct. 2164, 150 L.Ed.2d 292 (2001). Our task, therefore, is to examine the statute and the regulations to determine the deference, if any, owed to the Treasury Department in this appeal. In other words, we undertake Chevron review of the new Treasury regulations. If the Treasury regulations are entitled to Chevron deference, then they are new intervening authority and may require us to depart from Salman Ranch.