2 upcoming Supreme Court cases could affect HR.

HR professionals will want to monitor two cases the U.S. Supreme Court will hear in the 2023-24 term that begins this fall. One could dramatically reshape federal agencies' rulemaking authority. The other will address how a whistleblower can prove retaliation when whistle-blowing is followed by an adverse employment action like firing.

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo will ask the court to revisit a 40-year-old legal principle known as the Chevron doctrine that says courts should defer to regulatory agencies' expertise when interpreting laws in which Congress was purposely or unintentionally vague.

In the HR context, one example involves the ADA and how employers should determine if an employee is disabled. The law lists many examples of qualifying disabilities, but acknowledges that any such list will be incomplete. Congress left it to the EEOC to set rules for making disability determinations.

In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in Chevron v. NRDC that the Executive Branch can make such rules. The Loper case doesn't involve HR, but if the court...