Courts do not defer to the OLRC where they make stuff up out of thin air.
Elizabeth B. Prelogar et al. 21, Elizabeth B. Prelogar, Solicitor General, Counsel of Record, U.S. Department of Justice; Lindsay S. See, Solicitor General, Counsel of Record, Office of the W.V. Att'y Gen., State Capitol Complex; Beth S. Brinkmann, Counsel of Record, Covington & Burling LLP; Sean H. Donahue, Counsel of Record, Donahue, Goldberg & Littleton; Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General Counsel of Record, Office of the Att'y Gen.; Yaakov M. Roth, Counsel of Record, Jones Day; Andrew M. Grossman, Counsel of Record, Baker & Hostetler LLP; Paul M. Seby, Special Assistant Attorney General Counsel of Record, Greenberg Traurig, LLP; Elbert Lin, Counsel of Record, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP; Emily C. Schilling, Counsel of Record, Holland & Hart LLP; Misha Tseytlin, Counsel of Record, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, “Joint Appendix (Volume I of IV),” West VIRGINIA, et al., v. Environmental Protection AGENCY, et al.; The North American Coal Corporation, v. Environmental Protection Agency, et al.; Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC, v. Environmental Protection Agency, et al; North Dakota, v. Environmental Protection Agency, et al, 2021 WL 5982776, 2/22/21, WestLaw
Third, the Coal Petitioners ask us to defer to the Office of the Law Revision Counsel's decision to codify the House Amendment rather than the Senate Amendment. The separate opinion reasons as well that the Office of Law Revision Counsel is “the leading candidate” for deference. Separate Op. 23.
No such deference is due. While the Office of the Law Revision Counsel has expertise in the technical aspects of the codification process, it has no license, without Congress' approval, to change the substantive meaning of enacted law or to throw away an entire statutory provision. See Ganem, 746 F.2d at 851. That is why the Public Law prevails over the United States Code in case of conflict. See 1 U.S.C. § 112; *192 Stephan, 319 U.S. at 426; United States v. Welden, 377 U.S. 95, 98 n.4 (1964).