Judges often advise appellate lawyers to provide in their briefs a clear path to the outcome they want. The Supreme Court of the United States recently denied review in a case that exemplified that lesson yet again.

In Baldwin v. United States, No. 19–402, the petition for certiorari argued that the Court should overrule National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967 (2005). There, the Court held that a federal court must abandon its previous interpretation of a statute in favor of the implementing agency’s reasonable interpretation unless the court held the statute unambiguous. If it had not, then Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837, 844 (1984), required that the court apply the agency’s reasonable interpretation rather than its own precedent.

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