also called:
- Chevron deference
- Chevron deference doctrine
Chevron deference refers to a legal doctrine in the United States that requires courts to defer to agency interpretations of statutes that they administer, as long as those interpretations are reasonable. This principle originated from the U.S. Supreme Court case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984). Chevron deference essentially guides courts on how to handle cases where there is ambiguity in statutes that federal agencies are tasked with administering. It’s an important aspect of administrative law and the relationship between courts and regulatory agencies in the U.S.
From the Cornell Law website:
The scope of the Chevron deference doctrine is that when a legislative delegation to an administrative agency on a particular issue or question is not explicit but rather implicit, a court may not substitute its own interpretation of the statute for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrative agency. Rather, as Justice Stevens wrote in Chevron, when the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency’s action was based on a permissible construction of the statute.