Cite as: 526 U. S. 86 (1999)
OTMConnor, J., dissenting
See also INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 446-447, and n. 30 (1987) (rejecting agency interpretation of statute on ground that interpretation was not consistent with congressional intent, and agency's interpretation was not entitled to heightened deference because it had been inconsistent over time); Federal Election Comm'n v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U. S. 27, 37 (1981) (observing that the "thoroughness, validity, and consistency of an agency's reasoning are factors that bear upon the amount of deference to be given an agency's ruling," but ultimately deferring to inconsistent agency position); see also Watt v. Alaska, 451 U. S. 259, 272-273 (1981) (holding that agency's interpretation of amendment that was contemporaneous with amend-ment's passage was entitled to considerably more deference than agency's current, inconsistent interpretation).
Here, the FLRA changed its position on the precise matter that we have been asked to consider—whether agencies have a duty to bargain midterm under the Federal Labor Statute—and did so in response to a judicial decision. Initially, the FLRA determined that the Statute did not impose a duty to bargain midterm, see Internal Revenue Service, 17 F. L. R. A. 731 (1985), but it came to the opposite conclusion after the D. C. Circuit rejected this reading of the Statute, see National Treasury Employees Union v. FLRA, 810 F. 2d 295 (1987) (holding the Statute required midterm bargaining); Internal Revenue Service, 29 F. L. R. A. 162, 166 (1987) (adopting D. C. Circuit's reading of the Statute). At the time it reversed course, the FLRA offered only a scant explanation for its sudden interpretive shift. It merely stated that it agreed with the D. C. Circuit's holdings and concluded, "based on the court's decision and in agreement with the Administrative Law Judge," that the IRS had impermissibly refused to bargain over a midterm proposal. Id., at 165-166, 168. The only apparent reason for the agency's shift in interpretation was the D. C. Circuit's decision. In this circumstance, the agency's interpretation of
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