Amicus Briefs
Children’s Hospital Association of Texas v. Azar
CASE SUMMARY
NCLA submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a group of children’s hospitals from around the country. NCLA believed the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals erred in reversing the district court’s decision in this case, which had struck down a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formula for hospital payments that violates the statute.
The court of appeals instead ruled that CMS had replaced a 2008 rule with a “reasonable” 2017 rule that lowered the reimbursement of “safety net” hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of low-income patients. Administrative law generally requires agencies to explain the reasons for changing their rules, in order to obtain Chevron judicial deference. However, the D.C. Circuit deferred to CMS even though the agency refused to acknowledge—let alone explain—that the 2017 rule had changed the reimbursement formula. The court said that it was enough that CMS explained why its new rule was good policy.
The D.C. Circuit skipped Step One of Chevron and evaluated only whether the agency’s interpretation was “reasonable.” In doing so, the judges ducked their Article III duty as judges “to say what the law is,” denied the children’s hospitals the due process of law (by showing bias in favor of the agency’s legal interpretation), and allowed CMS to wield unlawful administrative power. The D.C. Circuit’s decision, which made the Chevron judicial deference precedent even worse than it already was, shows that the Supreme Court needed to police misuse of Chevron more closely or—better yet—abandon the Chevron doctrine altogether.
OUR TEAM
RELEVANT MATERIALS
NCLA FILINGS
Brief Amicus Curiae of the New Civil Liberties Alliance in Support of Petitioners
May 11, 2020 | Read More
PRESS RELEASES
NCLA Brief Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Recognize How Deference Has Compromised Judicial Independence and Due Process in Case over Funding of Children’s Hospitals
May 11, 2020 | Read More
IN THE MEDIA
Week in Review
The Regulatory Review
February 8, 2023
High Court Wont Take Fresh Look At Chevron Deference
Law360
February 8, 2023