July 2, 2024 — Wayne Reichle is president and owner of Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, New Jersey. He was one of the small business owners who sued the federal government in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which resulted in the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference. Wayne is the third generation in the seafood business. His grandfather was a fishing vessel owner and operator in Cape May, and he was followed by Wayne’s father, Jeff Reichle, who had a vision for expanding the business and helped pioneer several fisheries through his investments in shoreside processing and distribution.
The following excerpt was published by the New York Post:
The Supreme Court just sided with my New Jersey-based, family-owned fishing business — and may have even saved it.
That’s the reality of the court’s June 28 decision in a case called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the “Chevron doctrine” that gave unchecked power to federal bureaucrats.
I was one of the small business owners who sued the federal government in this case.
I didn’t know my lawsuit would go all the way to the Supreme Court, or that the justices would tackle a huge question like bureaucratic accountability and how our laws should be read.
I just wanted to stop a federal agency that threatened my ability to keep my family business afloat.
In early 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration decided that herring boats like mine had to start paying for the federal monitors who sometimes ride along during fishing trips.
These monitors check to make sure we’re not catching more fish than we’re allowed to, and observe our fishing methods to confirm we’re following the rules.
I’m glad we have a federal law that empowered NOAA to create a monitoring program: That law helps keep fishing sustainable.
But nowhere in the law does it say that fishermen like me have to pay for the monitors.
It was long understood that the government should pay for them, since the government requires them.
Only the government can afford them, too: The monitors cost about $700 a day.
For our two fishing boats, this mandate could have forced us to pay for over 100 days of monitoring a year, totaling more than $70,000 — a huge expense for a small fishing business and the fishermen we work with.
What gives federal bureaucrats the right to rewrite federal law?
They say the law is “unclear,” which gives them authority to interpret it.
But common sense says that if the law doesn’t say it, the government can’t do it.