Loper Bright Should Motivate CAFC to Overturn Maple Leaf Deferential Standard, Solar Cell Exporters Say

The Solar Energy Industries Association told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo scrapping the doctrine of Chevron deference to federal agencies should compel the appellate court to overturn the deferential standard established in Maple Leaf Fish Co. v. United States (see 2406280051) (Solar Energy Industries Association v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1392).

Filing a notice of supplemental authority on July 8, SEIA said the appellate court should take three lessons from Loper Bright, the first of which is that it's the "solemn duty of the Judiciary" to interpret statutes and "say what the law is." This principle underscores SEIA's petition for rehearing seeking reconsideration of Maple Leaf -- a standard of review which asks whether the president's statutory interpretation is a "clear misconstruction."

The second takeaway is that the Loper Bright decision should overrule the Federal Circuit's decision in the present case, since the appellate court sided with the government's statutory interpretation given that the two conflicting reads on the law were both reasonable. The third lesson is that Loper Bright is not solely applicable to agency decisions, since the court said it's the "Judiciary's obligation to find the 'best' reading of the statute."

A three-judge panel in the case ruled in November 2023 that former President Donald Trump didn't clearly misconstrue the statute when revoking a tariff exclusion on bifacial solar panels (see 2311130031). SEIA filed for rehearing, claiming that the panel improperly relied on the deferential standard from Maple Leaf. In response, the U.S. said that the court used the traditional tools of statutory construction in making its ruling (see 2402220042).