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Difficulty: MediumApplying Passage Principles

A passage discussing administrative law outlines the following principle: A court must defer to a government agency's interpretation of a statute if the statute is inherently ambiguous, the agency's interpretation is reasonable, and the agency has not contradicted its own prior formal interpretations without providing a detailed, reasoned explanation for the change.

Based on this principle, if a statute governing emissions is found to be ambiguous and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues a reasonable new interpretation that contradicts its formal interpretation from five years prior while failing to provide any explanation for the change, a court must defer to the EPA's new interpretation.

Answer: Answer

Answer

False
The statement is false because the scenario explicitly states the EPA failed to provide any explanation for contradicting its prior formal interpretation. According to the principle, providing a detailed, reasoned explanation is a necessary condition for a court to defer when an agency contradicts its past interpretations.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the necessary conditions established by the passage's principle.
The conditions for court deference are: 1) statute is ambiguous, 2) interpretation is reasonable, and 3) the agency has not contradicted prior formal interpretations without a reasoned explanation.
Applying a passage principle requires strictly mapping all conditional requirements to the new scenario.
2
Evaluate the facts of the hypothetical scenario against the established conditions.
Condition 1 is met (statute is ambiguous) and Condition 2 is met (interpretation is reasonable). However, the EPA contradicted a prior formal interpretation and failed to provide any explanation.
This determines whether the scenario fully satisfies the rule.
3
Determine the outcome based on the unfulfilled condition.
Because the EPA failed to provide a reasoned explanation for its contradiction, it failed the third condition. Therefore, the court must not defer.
A failure to meet a necessary qualifier means the outcome dictated by the principle does not apply.

Key Concept

Applying passage principles requires strict adherence to all necessary conditions and qualifiers mentioned in the text.
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Applying Passage Principles

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