The Supreme Court just awarded not one but two major victories to cryptocurrencies – DL News

• Cryptocurrency advocates celebrated a landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturns decades-old precedent
• This is the second ruling this week that challenges the regulators’ power over the industry.

Cryptocurrency advocates celebrated a landmark Supreme Court ruling Friday that the industry says will thwart the Securities and Exchange Commission in its crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activity.

“The writing is on the wall,” wrote Paul Grewal, chief legal officer for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, in a post on X, praising the court’s decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a landmark precedent known as the Chevron deference, which for 40 years saw courts defer to regulators on thorny legal issues affecting the industries they oversee.

To its conservative critics, overturning the Chevron Doctrine limits the power of unelected officials to interpret vague laws.

Chevron’s presumption that courts should defer to regulators is “misleading because agencies do not have specific expertise in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion.

But Chevron supporters say the law has served its purpose for 40 years and that striking it down is the action of a court full of ultraconservative judges looking to hand a victory to their corporate cronies.

All three liberal Supreme Court justices dissented from the ruling 6-3.

“The majority disdains moderation and craves power,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.

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The case has no direct connection to cryptocurrencies. Rather, it concerned a dispute between herring fishing companies and their regulator.

The two companies, Loper Bright and Relentless, sued the federal agency to challenge its monitoring program.

District courts sided with the fisheries regulator, citing Chevron’s deference.

“The majority disdains moderation and craves power.”

– Justice Elena Kagan

Loper Bright and Relentless appealed the sentences and the cases ended up in the Supreme Court.

The supreme court agreed to address just one issue in the case: whether to override the lower courts’ deference to the regulator.

Now, with the Chevron Doctrine overturned, judges, not regulators, will have the final say on issues where the law is unclear.

Bad week for the SEC

Cryptocurrency companies chafing under the SEC’s crackdown will see Chevron’s bankruptcy as a godsend.

This strengthens arguments from companies including Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and Terraform Labs that the regulator is overstepping its authority in taking enforcement action against them.

It’s been a bad week for SEC powerhouses.

The Loper Bright ruling comes just a day after the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that was also being closely watched for its ramifications on the power of the executive branch.

That case pitted the SEC against hedge fund manager George Jarkesy.

In a groundbreaking decision Thursday, the court ruled 6-3 that fraud defendants have the right to a jury trial, a challenge to the SEC’s use of in-house judges in the courts.

Regulators have been put on the spot

While cryptocurrency proponents have celebrated these decisions, their implications extend far beyond the industry.

Critics say these are precedents that will undermine regulators’ ability to prevent companies from committing environmental crimes, flouting workplace safety regulations, ignoring food safety standards, and so on.

They indicate what the fishing companies Loper Bright and Relentless are like supported by conservative groups, including the petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch – many of which have the stated ambition of eliminating Chevron.

Supreme Court Justices Are Increasingly Conservative to be questioned for their ties with business interests.

Contact the author at joanna@dlnews.com

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