This week, members of Congress will consider H.R. 4768—known as the Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA)—which would amend the Administrative Procedure Act to mandate that courts review all questions of law with a “de novo” standard of review. If this law passes, courts would be required to decide all questions of law without affording any deference to the statutory interpretations of agency experts who have expertise in the subject matter and the technical details of implementing and enforcing statutes.
SOPRA would fundamentally change the relationship between court and agency. For decades, courts would defer to the agency’s interpretations of the statutes that grant authority to the agencies, as long as Congress properly delegated that authority to the agency and the agency interpretation was promulgated under that authority.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill.
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