Voigt deference
| What is deference in the context of the administrative state? Deference, or judicial deference, is a principle of judicial review in which a federal court yields to an agency's interpretation of a statute or regulation. The U.S. Supreme Court has developed several forms of deference in reviewing federal agency actions, including Chevron deference, Skidmore deference, and Auer deference. Learn about state-level responses to deference here. |
| Five Pillars of the Administrative State |
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| Judicial deference |
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Voigt deference is an administrative law principle that directs federal courts to defer to state agency interpretations of ambiguous federal regulations. A divided United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit developed Voigt deference in the court's November 2020 decision in Voigt v. Coyote Creek Mining Company.[1]
Other types of deference
Below is a list of various deference regimes cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in agency interpretation cases:[2]
- No deference: ad hoc judicial reasoning
- Anti-deference: the court invokes a presumption against the agency interpretation in criminal cases (the rule of lenity) and in some cases in which the agency interpretation raises serious constitutional concerns (the canon of constitutional avoidance)
- Consultative deference: the court, without invoking a named deference regime, relies on some input from the agency (e.g. amicus briefs, interpretive rules or guidance, or manuals) and uses that input to guide its reasoning and decisionmaking process
- Skidmore deference: agency interpretation is entitled to "respect proportional to its power to persuade," with such power determined by the interpretation's "thoroughness, logic and expertness"; its "fit with prior interpretations"; etc.
- Beth Israel deference: pre-Chevron test permitting reasonable interpretations that are consistent with the statute
- Chevron deference: reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes accepted. If the statute is clear, no deference to agency
- Seminole Rock deference (also known as Auer deference): strong deference afforded to an agency's interpretations of its own regulations
- Curtiss-Wright: super-strong deference to executive interpretations involving foreign affairs and national security
See also
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