In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court whole-heartedly embraced the major questions doctrine, under which agencies asserting broad regulatory powers implicating matters of exceptional economic or political significance must be able to identify a clear statement from Congress authorizing the exercise of such powers.
As a consequence of the West Virginia decision, litigants challenging governmental actions have found major questions lurking in all manner of regulatory disputes. In some cases, invocation of the major questions doctrine makes sense (see, e.g., concerns about the SEC climate disclosure rule or the student-debt forgiveness plan). In other cases, not so much.
One place one might not have expected to see the major questions doctrine pop up is in the proceedings concerning the D.C. Bar's ethics complaint against former Trump Administration Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. In Clark's answer filed with the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, however, the doctrine is invoked. Here is the relevant portion of the Clark's redacted filing:
