For Immediate Release: July 2, 2024
Contact: Jess Davidson at jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-975-0960
WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday, June 28, the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Loper Bright Enterprizes et al. v. Raimondo. The Court’s decision overturned a 40-year old precedent set in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984), and ended something called “Chevron deference,” which is a legal practice that means if a statute has multiple potential interpretations, courts must give wide leeway to – or defer to – the federal agency’s interpretation of a statute.
Congress often delegates power to federal agencies to interpret federal laws and to implement the rules and regulations necessary to enforce provisions of laws such as the Affordable Care Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act, all of which have significant impacts on people with disabilities. Rulemaking has been an incredibly powerful tool in our democracy as it uniquely requires the federal government to consider the perspectives and opinions of the American people as laws are made through the Public Notice-And-Comment process.
In ending the use of the Chevron deference, the Supreme Court has weakened the ability of federal agencies to implement federal rules and regulations to correct inequities that result from complex policy issues. The American Association of People with Disabilities decries this devastating outcome, which will cut across every policy area and will especially negatively impact marginalized and multiply-marginalized Americans, including disabled people.
“The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper could be devastating to disabled people. ” said Maria Town, AAPD President and CEO. “AAPD is deeply concerned that this decision will open the door to an avalanche of lawsuits aimed at gutting federal regulations that safeguard the rights of people with disabilities, such as disabled peoples’ access to healthcare, but also on issues that affect all Americans, and are of significant importance for disabled people’s lives, such as civil rights protections, employment protections, environmental standards, safety standards , and food and drug regulation, to name only a few.”
“Members of communities whose perspectives and policy needs are far too rarely heard and prioritized by elected officials – such as disabled people – have sometimes been able to make their voices heard in regulatory processes, and now that important ability has been threatened. In the last year alone, AAPD has helped to strengthen several regulations by submitting disabled peoples’ stories as part of our own regulatory comments. We’ve submitted these stories for HHS’ groundbreaking Section 504 regulations to increase disabled people’s nondiscrimination protections, CMS regulations enforcing nondiscrimination protections under Section 1557 of the ACA, DOT regulations to improve air travel safety for disabled people, and more,” Town concluded.
While this decision is disappointing and frustrating, AAPD will never stop lifting up the priorities of our community through every avenue possible, including continuing to submit comments on federal regulations that include our community’s experiences and perspectives.
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