An unusual coalition of business, labor and immigration rights groups wants to change the way federal regulators interpret their own rules — but that effort has sparked fears that consumer and worker protections could be gutted in the process.
But groups including the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation have weighed in on the case, asking the nation's top court to disavow Auer deference, which they say gives federal regulators way too much power to dictate how they enforce their own rules.
"Their position is a very consistent one, which is: The regulated community wants predictability," said Paul Hughes, a partner at Mayer Brown who is arguing the case for Kisor. "This case comes before the Court as part of a larger strategy to disable public interest regulation," Whitehouse wrote in a brief with the court.