Chief Justice John Roberts today dealt another setback to legal conservatives, to clarity, and to the Constitution. Nonetheless, in the case of Kisor v. Wilkie, conservatives and the Constitution (but not clarity) gained important ground against the administrative state.

The case involved a Vietnam veteran’s claim for disability benefits. Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs had denied part of his benefits request via a disputable interpretation of the VA’s own regulations. Lower courts, citing Supreme Court doctrine known as “Auer deference,” deferred to the VA’s interpretation without thoroughly reviewing whether that interpretation was correct. Veteran James Kisor asked the high court to abandon the Auer doctrine and consider the meaning of the regulation anew, on its own merits, without servile deference to the bureaucratic edict.