A divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected calls by business groups to overturn two decades-old rulings that have given federal agencies broad power to interpret their own regulations.
Voting 5-4 on the central issues, the court on Wednesday reaffirmed rulings from 1945 and 1997 that typically require judges to defer to an agency on the meaning of ambiguous regulations. The court limited that legal doctrine, though, laying out new guidelines for when courts should yield to agencies.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberals in the majority. Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan rejected contentions that federal agencies have ...