January 20, 2026 — A conservative legal group is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling allowing the government to charge New England commercial fishermen for the cost of boat monitors.
In a legal brief filed with the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the New Civil Liberties Alliance asks the three-judge panel to prevent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from enforcing an “unlawful” regulation requiring Atlantic herring fisherman to pay for the cost of federal monitors to observe their catch.
The legal fight stems from a 2024 ruling by the U.S. Supreme that overturned the so-called “Chevron doctrine,” a decades-old administrative law principle that directs courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation when regulations or policies are unclear.
The principle stems from the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, in which the justices said courts should defer to an agency in “ambiguous situations” as long as its interpretation of a law is “reasonable.”