The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling could trigger a surge of legal challenges against longstanding regulations, according to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that North Dakota truck stop Corner Post could sue the Federal Reserve over a 2011 credit card swipe fee regulation.
Justice Jackson, in her dissent, warned that the decision might result in “a tsunami of lawsuits” with “the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government,” Politico reported.
“Congress can make clear that lawsuits bringing facial claims against agencies are not personal attack vehicles for new entities created just for that purpose,” Jackson wrote.
The decision interprets the Administrative Procedure Act, which imposes a 6-year statute of limitations on challenges to new regulations.
The court found that Corner Post, which opened in 2018, could sue because the statute of limitations starts when the company is first legally harmed.
Jackson called on Congress to “address this absurdity and forestall the coming chaos,” while the National Retail Federation (NRF) praised the ruling.
“The bottom line is that a small business harmed by a faulty regulation should not be denied its day in court based on a technicality, especially one that has been in dispute,” said NRF chief administrative officer and general counsel Stephanie Martz, who was co-counsel on the case.
