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38 Pallet C e nt ral • S e ptem be r- O ctobe r 2 0 24 But in the area of administra ve law, several decisions from 2024 are par cularly consequen al for OSHA (and businesses). SCOTUS's June 28, 2024, decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned its 40-year precedential test—"Chevron deference"—when evaluating whether courts should defer to an agency's "reasonable" interpretation of "ambiguous" statutory language. Chevron is a foundational test in administrative law, and it was long used in OSHA / MSHA /EPA cases to help agencies preserve new rules or enforcement actions against claims that the agency went beyond its authorizing statute. In the wake of Loper Bright, judges can now substitute their views on a topic for those of the agency's subject matter experts who drafted and enforced it, including disregard of comments and hearings in the development of the rule. is is major incentive for "forum shopping," i.e., to find federal courts in districts/ circuits most likely to kill federal rules as they will no longer have to "defer" to the agency's expertise, experience, and judgment. is is likely to be employed to rescind any OSHA heat standard that becomes final as well as the pending legal challenge to the OSHA "walkaround rights" rule. It also will be used against any future rules promulgated by a Democratic administration. Using the pending OSHA heat standard as an example, based on Loper Bright, courts can now: 1. accept OSHA's reasoning as acceptable under the law; 2. reject the standard outright because the statutory source (OSH Act) is silent on the subject of heat and OSHA would need specific congressional authorization to promulgate a heat rule; or SAFETY CONT.

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