By Amy Dalrymple

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision curbing the regulatory power of the executive branch could give the state a boost in its roughly 30 pending lawsuits against the federal government.

The high court’s ruling, released June 28, reverses a 40-year policy that required federal courts to defer to executive branch agencies when interpreting vague laws.

“It’s a long time coming,” Wrigley said of the decision in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo. “This was an unwise doctrine when it was first pronounced decades back.”

The practice — often called “Chevron deference” after the Supreme Court 1984 ruling that created it — applied to how federal agencies enacted regulatory marching orders from Congress.

When Congress passes a law directing an agency to regulate something, its instructions are seldom 100% clear. The court decided in the 1984 case that federal agencies could use their own expertise to fill in the blanks in areas where the law is ambiguous.

The idea was that the agencies would know best how to interpret the will of Congress, and that the doctrine would protect them from excessive legal challenges.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision revoked this power. Now, it’s up to federal judges to interpret gray areas in legislation.

The ruling is expected to lead to significant regulatory changes as the federal government implements the new standard.

Wrigley said he expects the ruling to be largely positive for North Dakota’s spate of lawsuits against the federal government — which includes cases challenging regulations passed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management,  Department of Education and more.

“This decision has taken away power from nameless, faceless bureaucrats,” he said.

The ruling could also have major impacts on the federal government’s relationships with Native tribes, said Tim Purdon, a former U.S. Attorney for North Dakota who represents tribal communities as a private practice lawyer.

“There are lots of regulations that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior and places like that have historically interpreted,” he said.

Some critics of the Chevron deference are hopeful its ouster will lead to more consistency in the executive branch.

Under Chevron, the regulatory environment could swing from one extreme to the other when new presidents took office, said Paul Traynor, an assistant professor for the University of North Dakota Law School whose specialties include insurance and corporate law.

“It kind of put both the country and people in sort of a whipsaw,” he said.(His brother, Dan Traynor, is a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of North Dakota.)

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn the doctrine, with the court’s three liberal judges dissenting.

The court’s opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, states that reversing Chevron is consistent with the intent of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the federal courts the power to interpret laws.

“The Framers … anticipated that courts would often confront statutory ambiguities and expected that courts would resolve them by exercising independent legal judgment,” Roberts wrote.

The court’s liberal justices countered that federal agencies are better suited to make sense of the instructions Congress gives them.

“Congress knows that it does not — in fact cannot — write perfectly complete regulatory statutes,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. “It knows that those statutes will inevitably contain ambiguities that some other actor will have to resolve, and gaps that some other actor will have to fill. And it would usually prefer that actor to be the responsible agency, not a court.”

The North Dakota courts also have a history of deferring to state agencies’ interpretation of the law, according to Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness.

The question remains as to whether the Supreme Court’s decision will lead North Dakota to reexamine the level of regulatory power it gives those agencies.

“I think that our state regulators … are going to have to very seriously look at the grant of authority that they have been delegated by the Legislature,” Traynor said.

The decision to overturn Chevron comes just two years after another landmark Supreme Court ruling that curbed the executive branch’s regulatory power, commonly referred to as West Virginia v. EPA. In that decision, the Supreme Court struck down an EPA rule that regulated carbon dioxide emissions by power plants. North Dakota was also a plaintiff in the case.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are always loaded with wide receiver talent. Due to their success in bringing in talented wideouts and helping them get to the NFL, they are being dubbed as “Wide Receiver U” lately.

Heading into the 2024 college football season, the Buckeyes have a lot of talented wideouts once again.

Led by Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State is expected to have one of the best wide receiver units in the nation once again. Carnell Tate could be another name to keep a close eye on.

During the 2023 campaign, Tate ended up catching 18 passes for 264 yards and a touchdown. His role should increase within the offense this season.

Standing in at 6-foot-2 and a shade over 190 pounds, Tate is a great route-runner and a very consistent target. He doesn’t have amazing speed, but he’s capable of creating separation.

On3 has listed a very intriguing NFL comparison for Tate. They believe he’s similar to current Tennessee Titans wideout Tyler Boyd.

“Carnell Tate’s dimensions, athleticism and ball skills are similar to Tyler Boyd at the same stage. Both are savvy, skilled receivers with the ability to win at the catch point.”

Looking ahead to the 2024 campaign, the Buckeyes should be a National Championship contender. They are loaded with talent on both sides of the football.

Whether Will Howard or Julian Sayin is starting at quarterback, the aerial attack should be one of the best in the nation as well.

Tate could be a major X-Factor for Ohio State. If he takes a big step forward in development, he could break out as an elite No. 3 wide receiver.

With the season right around the corner, fans are getting excited to have live football back on their TV. The Buckeyes should win big this season and it will be fun to see their offense in action.

Emergency management officials have shifted their focus from flooding in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska to further south on the Missouri River, where more rain this week brought predictions of second crests.

Flood concerns were being felt as far south as St. Louis as the Missouri River continues to carry runoff from record-setting storms in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, combined with more recent rains over Missouri. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut back water releases from the dam system it manages in the Dakotas.

“In response to the rainfall, the releases from Fort Randall and Gavins Point dams were reduced,” said John Remus, chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. “The lower releases were able to reduce downstream river stages, but they could not completely offset all of the flooding in the Sioux City area.”

This year’s waves of precipitation, while damaging to many in southeastern South Dakota, have had some positives. All of eastern South Dakota has escaped drought conditions that had gripped parts of the state for years, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Patience waning as property tax probe dampens expectations of relief, cuts