In a significant ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has potentially opened the door to numerous legal challenges against longstanding regulations, according to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The court, in a 6-3 decision, allowed North Dakota truck stop Corner Post to sue the Federal Reserve over a 2011 rule on credit card swipe fees.
Jackson, in her dissent, cautioned that the decision could unleash “a tsunami of lawsuits” with “the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government,” as reported by Politico.
“Congress can make clear that lawsuits bringing facial claims against agencies are not personal attack vehicles for new entities created just for that purpose,” Jackson wrote.
The case hinges on the interpretation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets a 6-year statute of limitations for legal challenges to new regulations.
The court ruled that Corner Post, which opened in 2018, could sue because the statute of limitations begins when the company is first legally harmed.
Jackson urged Congress to “address this absurdity and forestall the coming chaos,” while the National Retail Federation (NRF) welcomed the ruling.
“The bottom line is that a small business harmed by a faulty regulation should not be denied its day in court based on a technicality, especially one that has been in dispute,” said NRF chief administrative officer and general counsel Stephanie Martz, who was co-counsel on the case.
