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Trump Stacked SCOTUS Against Agencies. Now It Could Come to Bite Him.

Donald Trump laid the foundation for the Supreme Court to grant a win to the conservative movement on the administrative state, but experts say that could limit his own proposed agenda.

Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s policy agenda for 2025 includes firing large swaths of federal government workers, undoing Biden emissions, housing and a range of other regulations. Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Former President Donald Trump gave conservatives the Supreme Court of their dreams. If he wins in November, it is also poised to undercut his ability to implement his second-term agenda.

A handful of legal groups partially backed by right-wing donors Charles Koch and conservative legal activist Leonard Leo are leading the cases before the court to overturn a long-standing legal precedent, called Chevron deference, that allows government agencies to interpret the gaps and ambiguities in laws. If they succeed, Congress will be responsible for hashing out the minutia in every policy, something Congress is not known for doing.

But a future Trump administration would also have to grapple with how the sweeping win for the conservative, deregulatory movement could curb his own policy options if he wins in November.