Courts, not gov't agencies, have final say over ambiguous laws - Ohio top court
"The decision confirms the importance of the separation of powers in Ohio and helps ensure a level playing field for citizens and small businesses subject to regulatory enforcement," he said.
Courts, not gov't agencies, have final say over ambiguous laws - Ohio top court
By Nate Raymond
REUTERS/Chip East
Summary
Ohio Supreme Court rejects state equivalent of "Chevron deference" doctrine
That doctrine says courts must defer to administrative agencies when laws are vague
(Reuters) - Ohio's top court on Thursday ruled the state's courts do not need to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous laws, delivering a victory to an engineering firm backed by a conservative legal group seeking an end to that same practice at the federal level.
The Ohio Supreme Court became the latest state high court to decline to require judges to defer to administrative agencies' interpretations of statutes they carry out, as federal courts do under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Chevron deference" doctrine.
"We reaffirm today that it is the role of the judiciary, not administrative agencies, to make the ultimate determination about what the law means," Justice Pat DeWine, a Republican, wrote in a 4-3 opinion (in which the minority concurred in the judgment alone).
The court reached that conclusion as it overturned an appellate court's decision that had deferred to a state board's interpretation of a statute governing what requirements a firm must meet to provide engineering services in Ohio.
Cincinnati business owner Shawn Alexander had applied to the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors for a certificate of authorization to allow his company, TWISM Enterprises, to provide engineering services.
But the board in 2019 declined to issue a certificate, saying that an independent contractor Alexander had listed to be the full-time manager for TWISM's projects under Ohio law had to be an employee.
DeWine called the board's reading of the Ohio law "second best" as he concluded nothing in the statute precluded an independent contractor from serving as a full-time engineering manager.
Oliver Dunford, a lawyer for Alexander's company at the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, said the ruling made Ohio at least the 11th state that barred judicial deference to agency interpretations.
"The decision confirms the importance of the separation of powers in Ohio and helps ensure a level playing field for citizens and small businesses subject to regulatory enforcement," he said in a statement.
The lower court, in upholding the board's decision, had cited the 1984 Supreme Court ruling, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which directed judges to defer to federal agencies' interpretation of U.S. laws that may be ambiguous.
Chevron deference has been the subject of a growing number of cases by groups seeking to rein in the power of administrative agencies asking the 6-3 conservative U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the doctrine.
The case is TWISM Ents. L.L.C. v. State Bd. of Registration for Professional Engineers & Surveyors, Ohio Supreme Court, No. 2021-1440.
For TWISM: Oliver Dunford of Pacific Legal Foundation
For the state: Michael Hendershot of the Ohio Office of the Attorney General