Supreme Court Expands Regulation Challenge Window

The US Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that businesses can challenge federal regulations many years after they are enacted, allowing a North Dakota truck stop to sue over a 2011 rule on debit-card swipe fees. This precedent-setting decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, states that the statute of limitations begins when a plaintiff is directly affected by a regulation. The ruling could open the door for numerous longstanding rules to be legally contested, amplifying the impact of a recent decision that allows judges to discard regulations inconsistent with Congressional intentions. The case involves the Federal Reserve's rule on fees banks charge merchants for debit transactions, initially regulated by the 2010 Durbin Amendment. Dissenting, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that this could lead to frequent and potentially disruptive challenges to established regulations.