Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Chevron deference – a legal precedent stemming from the 1980s that gave federal agencies wide latitude in interpreting congressional statutes.
That move, according to Robert Smith, a partner at Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based law firm K&L Gates, could turn the U.S. seafood industry into a more litigious environment in the near future.
“In the short term, you are going to see a lot more uncertainty and a lot more litigation,” Smith said at the 2025 Seafood Expo North America during a presentation titled “The Demise of the Chevron Doctrine and the Legal Implications for Fisheries and Aquaculture.”
Chevron was overturned as a result of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case in which herring fishermen from the U.S. state of New Jersey challenged a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rule forcing them to pay out of pocket for mandatory onboard observers – sometimes more than USD 700 (EUR 640) per day, the plaintiffs claimed.
The Supreme Court used the case as a chance to review Chevron, overturning it with a 6-3 vote. The fishermen’s challenge of the rule, meanwhile, is ongoing.
Smith’s fellow partner at K&L Gates, Tim Hobbs, said that more cases like Loper Bright are now likely to arise in the U.S. seafood industry, as challenges to statutes that once were nearly impossible to pursue now have better odds at succeeding...
