National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Boston & Maine Corp., 503 U.S. 407, 11 (1992)

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Cite as: 503 U. S. 407 (1992)

Opinion of the Court

II

The primary question raised by these cases is a straightforward matter of statutory interpretation: whether § 562(d), as amended, authorizes the condemnation and transaction approved by the ICC but set aside by the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals disallowed the transaction based on its own interpretation of the language "required for intercity rail passenger service" in § 562(d)(1). In so holding it limited Amtrak's condemnation authority to property that was necessary, in the sense of indispensable, to Amtrak's operations. The ICC interpreted the relevant statutory language to give Amtrak more latitude, and it is our task to determine whether the Commission had authority for its statutory interpretation.

Judicial deference to reasonable interpretations by an agency of a statute that it administers is a dominant, well-settled principle of federal law. We relied upon it in Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984), and have reaffirmed it often. See, e. g., K mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U. S. 281, 292-293 (1988); Pauley v. BethEnergy Mines, Inc., 501 U. S. 680, 696-697 (1991). These decisions mandate that when a court is reviewing an agency decision based on a statutory interpretation, "if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute." Chevron U. S. A., supra, at 843. If the agency interpretation is not in conflict with the plain language of the statute, deference is due. K mart Corp., 486 U. S., at 292. In ascertaining whether the agency's interpretation is a permissible construction of the language, a court must look to the structure and language of the statute as a whole. Id., at 291; Sullivan v. Everhart, 494 U. S. 83, 89 (1990). If the text is ambiguous and so open to interpretation in some respects, a degree of deference is granted to the agency, though

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