Page:Michigan v. EPA.pdf/20

 Cite as: 576 U. S. ____ (2015)

3

THOMAS, J., concurring

tion of an ambiguous statute is “not authoritative”). Such a transfer is in tension with Article III’s Vesting Clause, which vests the judicial power exclusively in Article III courts, not administrative agencies. U. S. Const., Art. III, §1. In reality, as the Court illustrates in the course of dismantling EPA’s interpretation of §112(n)(1)(A), agencies “interpreting” ambiguous statutes typically are not engaged in acts of interpretation at all. See, e.g., ante, at 9. Instead, as Chevron itself acknowledged, they are engaged in the “ ‘formulation of policy.’ ” 467 U. S., at 843. Statutory ambiguity thus becomes an implicit delegation of rulemaking authority, and that authority is used not to find the best meaning of the text, but to formulate legally binding rules to fill in gaps based on policy judgments made by the agency rather than Congress. Although acknowledging this fact might allow us to escape the jaws of Article III’s Vesting Clause, it runs headlong into the teeth of Article I’s, which vests “[a]ll legislative Powers herein granted” in Congress. U. S. Const., Art I., §1. For if we give the “force of law” to agency pronouncements on matters of private conduct as to which “ ‘Congress did not actually have an intent,’ ” Mead, supra, at 229, we permit a body other than Congress to perform a function that requires an exercise of the legislative power. See Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads, 575 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2015) (THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment) (slip op., at 21–22). These cases bring into bold relief the scope of the potentially unconstitutional delegations we have come to countenance in the name of Chevron deference. What EPA claims for itself here is not the power to make political judgments in implementing Congress’ policies, nor even the power to make tradeoffs between competing policy goals set by Congress, American Railroads, supra, at ___– ___ (opinion of THOMAS, J.) (slip op., at 20–21) (collecting