Welcome to the Monday, June 30, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Chevron deference overturned one year ago
- Texas Gov. Abbott (R) signs bill to allow early voting on weekends and up to Election Day
- Did you know that Congress has passed 27 reconciliation bills since 1985?
Chevron deference overturned one year ago
Saturday, June 28, marked one year since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overruling its 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. and in the process overturning the Chevron deference doctrine.
The Chevron doctrine of judicial deference refers to the administrative law principle that requires federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous or unclear statute.
In a 6–3 ruling, the Court held that judges must independently interpret ambiguous federal statutes rather than defer to agency interpretations. The majority wrote that such deference violated the judiciary’s constitutional and legal responsibility to determine the meaning of laws.
Judicial deference is central to many debates about the administrative state and the balance of power between agencies and the courts. The Loper decision changed the legal framework for reviewing federal regulations and prompted litigation and legislation across the country. As of June 25, the Loper decision was cited in 343 court documents.
Today, we’re going to dive into the highlights of Ballotpedia’s post-Loper coverage from our Checks and Balances newsletter and examine the last year of state legislation on judicial deference from our in-house tracker.
Post-Loper highlights
Ballotpedia has covered or referenced Loper in nine Checks and Balances stories over the last year. Here are some of the highlights. Click each headline below to read the full story from the newsletter:
- Fifth Circuit sends ESG rule to lower court following Loper Bright: The Fifth Circuit sent a case centering on the Department of Labor’s ESG retirement investing rule back to a lower court following the Loper decision to be reconsidered without deferring to the agency’s interpretation of the relevant statute.
- Fifth Circuit rules against DOL tip credit regulations, citing Loper Bright: In a separate case, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Department of Labor exceeded its statutory authority in issuing tip credit regulations, applying the Loper standard to reject agency deference.
- Air Force cites Loper Bright in refusal of EPA order: In July 2024, the U.S. Air Force announced it would not comply with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) order to clean polluted drinking water in Tucson, Arizona. The Air Force argued that federal regulators did not have the authority to issue the order, citing Loper.
- Harvard Law Forum debates agency authority following Loper Bright: Law professors Gillian Metzger and Ilan Wurman participated in Harvard Law School’s Rappaport Forum in October 2024. The experts debated the scope of federal agency authority following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron deference.
- Trump cites Loper in directive instructing agencies to skip public input for deregulation: In April 2025, President Donald Trump (R) issued a memorandum directing federal administrative agencies to revoke regulations they believed were unlawful based on recent Supreme Court rulings, including Loper.
Judicial nondeference in the states
While the Loper Bright ruling applied to federal statutes, a number of states have considered their own judicial deference policies.
In 2024, before the Loper decision was announced, Utah passed HB 0470, which required state agencies to identify federal regulations affecting them that could potentially be challenged in court if Loper overturned the Chevron precedent.
Ballotpedia has tracked 34 bills related to judicial deference in 21 states in 2025. Four of the bills were signed into law as of June 2025. Kentucky’s SB 24, Oklahoma’s HB 2729, and Texas’ SB 14 limited state judicial deference by requiring courts to use a de novo (no deference) review standard of agency interpretations. Utah’s SJR 006 followed the 2024 bill, asking state agencies to review federal regulations impacting the state in light of Loper.
Missouri’s SB 221 passed both chambers of the Legislature but had not been signed into law as of June 26. It would require state courts to adopt a de novo review standard.
The map below shows the states considering bills affecting judicial deference in 2025.
To learn more about the Loper decision, check out last year’s episode of On The Ballot.
Click here to see Ballotpedia’s extensive resource on the administrative state and our content specific to the Chevron doctrine. You can also click here to use Ballotpedia’s Administrative State Legislation Tracker.
Texas Gov. Abbott (R) signs bill to allow early voting on weekends leading up to Election Day
On June 22, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 2753 into law. The bill pushes back the start of early voting, but extends it to weekends and the four days leading up to Election Day.
The new law requires early voting to begin on the 12th day before Election Day and end on the day before the election. The new law also allows early voting on weekends and holidays during the early voting period, a change from the previous law. Previously, early voting began on the 17th day before an election and ended on the Friday before the election, and in-person early voting was not available on weekends. For elections occurring on the state’s May election date and for runoff elections, early voting will start on the ninth day before Election Day.
The Republican-sponsored bill received mixed support in the Texas Legislature. On June 1, the Texas House passed SB 2753, 84-45, with 21 legislators not voting. Both Democrats (23-25) and Republicans (61-20) split their votes on the bill. Also on June 1, the Texas Senate passed the bill 21-10 along partisan lines.
The bill takes effect on Sept. 1 but counties will have until Aug. 1, 2027, to implement the changes.
Texas will become the 23rd state where the early voting period ends the day before Election Day, and the 12th state where early voting begins less than two weeks before the election. In 31 states, early voting begins two weeks or more before Election Day. Three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire — do not have in-person early voting.
Three states — Kentucky, Missouri, and South Carolina — have established early voting since the 2020 general election, while at least 16 have increased the availability of early voting in the same period. This includes states that passed laws establishing more days or hours of early voting, requiring early voting for new elections, or increasing the number of early voting locations.
In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed SB 1, which, among other changes, eliminated 24-hour early voting but increased the number of hours an early voting location must be open from eight to nine. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission‘s Election Administration and Voting Survey for 2022 — the most recent version of the report available — more than one-fifth of voters nationwide voted early and in person at the 2022 general election.
Lawmakers have introduced 167 bills related to early voting this year, 16 of which have become law. In Texas, Gov. Abbott signed 44 election-related bills this year and vetoed one (HB 5671).
Click here to learn more about early voting and here to search for early voting legislation using our Election Administration Legislation tracker.
Did you know that Congress has passed 27 reconciliation bills since 1985?
Presidents signed 23 of those bills into law and vetoed four. President Bill Clinton (D) vetoed three, in 1995, 1999, and 2000, and President Barack Obama (D) vetoed one in 2015.
Budget reconciliation is a legislative process used to expedite the consideration of spending, tax, and debt limit bills. Budget reconciliation bills require a simple majority (51 votes) instead of the three-fifths majority (60 votes) usually needed in the Senate to bring bills to a vote and approve them.
On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 215-214 to pass H.R. 1, a budget reconciliation bill titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act. ” As of this writing, the U.S. Senate was actively considering the bill.
Click here to learn more about the budget reconciliation process. Click here to watch Ballotpedia’s video explainer of budget reconciliation.