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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This may have already been covered, but could someone explain why judicial deference to administrative agencies based on their expertise is appropriate, but it's inappropriate to do so in criminal cases (i.e. prosecutor calling the medical examiner to testify that the cause of death was homicide)?

If the issue is one of routine interpretation, how is that immune from politics, since agencies are part of the Executive Branch and subject to the then-President's policy priorities?

It would seem reasonable that everyone has to prove their case.  Agencies claiming that they should get deference because they've "always done things this way" isn't much of an excuse.  Agencies can certainly explain that a court's departure from their historical interpretation could cause disruption, but doesn't that go to the heart of the case?[/quote]

The agency only gets deference in limited circumstances: (1) when Congress has been ambiguous in its drafting of the law text (that is, Congress has not explicitly addressed the issue being argued) and (2) when the agency’s interpretation is “reasonable.”

The deference actually acknowledges that we have a dynamic political process and that different Administrations can come to different “reasonable” interpretations of how to faithfully execute a law passed by Congress. It’s also an acknowledgement of the impossibility for Congress to have perfect ex-ante knowledge of how laws will apply to future changes in a marketplace or the expertise to define and calibrate every nuance for a technical issue intended to be covered by a statute.

For example, can Congress set the technical parameters of nuclear safety standards in a law? Of course not; as a collective body they do not have the expertise. It is insane for the Supreme Court to mandate that Congress set such standards in a piece of legislation. [/quote]

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