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On September 29, 2025, the Tenth Circuit issued its decision in Rangel-Fuentes v. Bondi. The case not only resolves an important question about eligibility for cancellation-of-removal orders under federal immigration law but also provides a roadmap for how courts might approach statutory interpretation—and, specifically, delegations of discretionary agency authority—in the post-Chevron era.
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On September 18th, the Supreme Court requested that the government file a response to the pending cert petition in Poore v. United States, a case raising an interesting Loper Bright implementation question.
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Last week, the Fifth Circuit issued a significant decision in Texas v. EPA, denying Texas’s petition for review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) disapproval of a State Implementation Plan (“SIP”) under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”). The case is notable not only for its implications for interstate air pollution regulation, but also for its application of Loper Bright.
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Earlier this month, the Third Circuit released its decision in In re Yellow Corp., a case that started as a high-stakes bankruptcy dispute and ended up involving a challenge to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (“PBGC”) regulations imposing “reasonable conditions” on the use of COVID-19 relief funds. The Yellow Corp. decision offers another example of Loper Bright implementation and provides insight into how courts are handling cases involving express delegations of “gap-filling” regulatory authority to agencies in the post-Chevron era.
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AFP Foundation’s Ryan Mulvey discusses his Constitution Day essay.
On September 17, 1787—today, 238 years ago—a momentous event took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Delegates from the thirteen States, who were assembled in convention, signed our United States Constitution. Although the Constitution was not ratified until the next year, its completion and presentation to the States for adoption marked the beginning of a radical restructuring of our national government.
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Last week, in Verizon Communications Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, the Second Circuit rejected a petition for review of a forfeiture order imposing nearly $47 million in penalties for violation of the confidentiality provisions of the federal Communications Act. In doing so, the Circuit offered an important example of how courts will apply the de novo standard of review required by Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, as well as the limits of that standard when it is clear the best reading of a law is that it delegates some discretionary authority to an agency.
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The University of New Hampshire Law Review recently published an article by University of Tulsa law professor Gwendolyn Savitz entitled “Interpretive Rules are the New Regulations: Agency Guidance After Loper Bright.” The article explores the impact Loper Bright might have on agencies turning to interpretive rules to bypass notice-and-comment rulemaking and, potentially, searching judicial review in a post-Chevron world.
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In a long-awaited remand decision, the D.C. Circuit in Solar Energy Industries Ass’n v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission upheld FERC’s regulatory interpretation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”). The Circuit previously sided with FERC last year when it concluded the agency’s position was “reasonable” under Chevron Step Two, in light of supposed statutory ambiguity. This week’s decision comes after the Supreme Court’s landmark overruling of Chevron in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Yet despite the end of Chevron deference, the Circuit still concluded that FERC’s reading of the law reflected “the best view of the statute.”
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The Pacific Legal Foundation launched a new tool that “uses artificial intelligence to trace every federal regulation back to the law that supposedly authorizes it.”
The tool—which was developed by Patrick McLaughlin, a visiting research fellow at PLF—reveals whether Congress granted agencies broad, open-ended powers or gave them narrow, specific instructions. That distinction is crucial in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in West Virginia v. EPA, which developed the major questions doctrine, and Loper Bright, which restored meaningful judicial review of agency power. By mapping the legal foundation of each rule, the Nondelegation Project highlights which regulations may now be vulnerable to challenge.
An accompanying explainer on the Nondelegation Project identifies the agencies with the highest number of general delegations:
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (3,309)
- Environmental Protection Agency (2,752)
- Agricultural Marketing Service (1,284)
- Food and Drug Administration (1,155)
- Department of Justice (661); Food Safety and Inspection Service (661)