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The implications of Loper Bright are too sweeping to exhaustively detail here, but its impact will be especially relevant in cases where, say, a federal agency is in Democratic hands, and a reviewing court is in conservative hands. How should “forever chemicals” be regulated? Don’t ask scientists who understand these chemicals’ harmful impacts on humans and the environment—ask Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose expertise is such that he recently authored an opinion about EPA regulation of “nitrogen oxides” while repeatedly referring to “nitrous oxide,” better known as laughing gas. How should geographic areas be defined for purposes of Medicare hospital reimbursements? Previously, that would have been a good question for the people running Medicare; now, it could fall to the likes of Judge Aileen Cannon. What regulations can the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue to protect workers engaged in potentially dangerous work? That’s a fantastic decision not for regulators who have spent their careers dealing with actual workplace injuries, but for Judge Jim Ho, who is of the opinion that doctors experience an “aesthetic injury” when a woman gets an abortion.
