Court Opinion

ID: 9486960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:04:48.701383+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:01.753626
License: Public Domain

PLAGER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority finds in Chevron the rule that “an agency’s interpretation of a statute deserves deference only ‘if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue_’” Op. at 1575, quoting Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2782, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). But the full statement of the Supreme Court in Chevron is: “Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency’s answer is based on a permissa-ble construction of the statute.” Chevron, 467 U.S. at 843, 104 S.Ct. at 2782. In this case, the statute says nothing specific about retroactivity of payments, or time limits applicable to retroactive benefits. The Secretary, reasonably, wrote regulations, which he is empowered by Congress to do, that set time limits for retroactive payments. This is a straightforward example of a case in which the federal judiciary is not in charge of the making of rules for administering federal programs — the executive is. “When a challenge to an agency construction of a statutory provision, fairly conceptualized, really centers on the wisdom of the agency’s policy, rather than whether it is a reasonable choice within a gap left open by Congress, the challenge must fail. In such a case, federal judges — who have no constituency — have a duty to respect legitimate policy choices made by those who do.” Chevron, 467 U.S. at 866, 104 S.Ct. at 2793. I would reverse, and reinstate the decision of the Board of Veterans Appeals which properly applied the regulation.