Garco Construction, Inc., Petitioner v. Robert M. Speer, Acting Secretary of the Army

Garco Construction asked the Supreme Court to review whether earlier cases telling courts to defer to agencies' interpretations of their own rules should be overruled. On March 19, 2018, the Court declined review, leaving the Federal Circuit's result in place without deciding that broader question.

The question matters to businesses, workers, and regulated groups when agencies explain unclear rules. For example, a contractor dealing with federal rules may face a harder or easier path in court depending on how much deference judges give an agency.

There is no further Supreme Court action on this docket. The lower-court judgment remains in effect, and the broader deference question had to wait for another case.

Garco asked the Court to hear its appeal and reconsider Auer and Seminole Rock. Those cases tell courts to often defer to agencies interpreting their own regulations.

Federal contractors and other regulated parties may still face the same lower-court framework in similar disputes. Agencies also keep the benefit of that framework unless the Court changes it later.

There was no further step at the Supreme Court in this docket. The case ended there, with the Federal Circuit result left in place.