This is my last column in Infrastructure as my year as Chair of the Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section (IRIS) has come to an end. I have very much enjoyed my year as Chair and want to thank all the Section members and guests who made such thoughtful presentations at our Section meetings as well as those who contributed the excellent articles on topics of general interest and often cutting-edge issues that appeared in this Infrastructure publication over the past year. I especially want to thank Sue Koz, the Director of IRIS, who continues to provide invaluable service to our section.
October 07, 2024 Feature
Chair’s Column
Linda S. Stein
I recommend the interesting article in this issue of Infrastructure, “How the Railroad Industry Became the Vanguard of Innovation.” It describes how the railroad industry has been and continues to be at the forefront of innovation since the late 1800s. I want to thank the author, Tim Strafford of Steptoe LLP, for his fine work on the article
The legal landscape affecting regulated industries has changed over the course of this year, particularly resulting from the trio of United States Supreme Court decisions issued this summer. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court overturned its 40-year-old Chevron doctrine under which courts had deferred to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes. In Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Supreme Court held that the six-year statute of limitations to challenge agency rules could not strictly be applied to a business that did not exist when a rule was promulgated; instead, the statute of limitations begins to run when the agency rule is first applied to such a business. In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court addressed when an agency can adjudicate a matter itself. The Court held that when the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial since the SEC antifraud provisions replicate common law fraud and the “public rights” exception to Article III jurisdiction does not apply. The impact of these decisions will be felt for years to come.
This changing regulatory landscape will be the focus of upcoming webinars and presentations at our October 2024 Section meeting in Houston, Texas. For example, on September 26, 2024, the Section will present a webinar titled, “U.S. Supreme Court Term Preview—October Term 2024.” The panelists for this webinar are all former US Supreme Court clerks currently practicing at McGuireWoods who will preview the cases that the Court has already decided to hear and those cases likely to land on the Court’s docket before the end of the upcoming term.
On November 5, 2024, the Section will present a webinar titled, “Energy Infrastructure and the Endangered Species Act,” which will review the changing legal landscape associated with ESA compliance and the implications those changes will have on projects subject to ESA consultation. The moderator of this program will be David DePippo of Dominion Energy and the panelists are attorneys practicing at Troutman Pepper.
At the October Section meeting in Houston, there will be a presentation on recent United States Supreme Court decisions, including the Loper Bright decision that overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine. I hope to see you at the Section meeting in Houston from October 16–18, 2024.