D.C. Circuit Case Before and After Loper Bright

Loper Bright's actual impact on agency deference has hardly been clear. Because while the majority opinion said it was overruling Chevron, a conspicuous paragraph in the middle of the Court's analysis seemingly reformulated Chevron, just under a new citation in the United States Reports. This paragraph—and other language in the opinion—led to Adrian Vermeule's post: Chevron By Any Other Name. The paragraph from Loper Bright said: In a case involving an agency, of course, the statute's meaning may well be that the agency is authorized to exercise a degree of discretion. Congress has often enacted such statutes. For example, some statutes expressly delegate to an agency the authority to give meaning to a particular term. Others empower an agency to prescribe rules to "fill up the details" of a statutory scheme, or to regulate subject to the limits imposed by a term or phrase that leaves agencies with flexibility, such as "appropriate" or "reasonable." When the best reading of a statute…