Justices Grapple With Potentially Destabilizing Effects of Opening Up Decades of Regulations to New Challenges

Washington D.C. – The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System – a case brought by special interests that threatens to undermine the government’s ability to deliver for people. 

Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System concerns the statute of limitations under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), under which people generally have six years to challenge federal agencies’ rule, or policies, in court as unlawful. The case could have broad consequences for how the government delivers for people  if the Supreme Court agrees that people can challenge rules that have been on the books for years beyond the APA’s six-year time limit. This could mean huge numbers of pre-existing federal regulations and other federal policies could be open to an avalanche of legal attacks, regardless of how long ago it was implemented and regardless of whether the agency has taken any steps to enforce it.

“‘Mom and Pop’ shops across the country depend on regulatory certainty to grow, thrive and compete, and this case threatens to destabilize and harm the businesses that make up the backbone of the American economy,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, which submitted an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the Small Business Majority, Main Street Alliance, American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, and Businesses for Conservation and Climate Action (BCCA). “A harmful ruling in Corner Post—coupled with the rise of the major questions doctrine and future potential bad decisions in the Supreme Court cases Relentless v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—could open up a Pandora’s box of extremist attacks on a wide swath of federal agency policies that families rely on in their daily lives. The Court should reject this extremist attempt to open the door for legal threats against longstanding and proven federal regulations.”

For more information about Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, please visit https://democracyforward.org/work/corner-post-v-federal-reserve/. 

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