1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i The Supreme Courts “Major Questions” Doctrine: Background and Recent Developments May 17, 2022 Congress frequently delegates authority to agencies in general or broad terms to promulgate regulations that
2、advance the goals Congress has identified. In a number of decisions, however, the Supreme Court has declared that if an agency seeks to decide an issue of major national significance, a general delegation of authority may not be enough; instead, the agencys action must be supported by clear statutor
3、y authorization. Courts, commentators, and individual Supreme Court Justices have referred to this doctrine as the major questions doctrine (or major rules doctrine), although the Supreme Court has never used that term in a majority opinion. The Supreme Court has recently signaled an increased inter
4、est in applying the major questions doctrine as a principle of statutory interpretation in challenges to significant agency actions. This Sidebar provides an overview of the major questions doctrine, discusses cases this term in which the Court has invoked or may invoke the doctrine, and identifies
