SCOTUS Is Poised to Make It Easier to Beat the Government. Big Law Is Ready to Make a Killing.

The “rate of success is likely to change to the detriment of the government as a result of the Court’s decision,” one law firm wrote in a pitch to potential clients.

Congress Lobbying
Major legal and lobbying firms are seeing one case before the Supreme Court as an entry point to increase their presence lobbying on Capitol Hill or in the courtroom suing over regulations. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Some of the nation’s biggest legal and lobbying firms are telling industry clients: Get ready now to win in court against the government agencies trying to regulate you.

The Supreme Court — stacked with three conservative Donald Trump-era justices — is poised to strictly limit, or overturn entirely, a long-standing legal precedent that gives agencies discretion to regulate where laws are ambiguous.

As outside think tanks, public interest groups and Democratic lawmakers ring alarm bells that overturning Chevron deference could sharply curtail government attempts to regulate everything from pollution to public health, big industry law firms are positioning themselves for the windfall.