In an opinion released earlier today, Judge Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas has stayed the rule from going into effect.  

Although I have not had time to sit and digest it at length, Chevron's demise plays a significant role.  Consider this passage:

In reviewing agency action under the APA, “[c]ourts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority” and should “set aside any [] action inconsistent with the law as they interpret it.” Loper Bright, 144 S. Ct. at 2261, 2273; see also Chamber, 885 F.3d at 369 (“A regulator’s authority is constrained by the authority that Congress delegated it by statute.”). A court should no longer defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute but should decide for itself “whether the law means what the agency says.” Loper Bright, 144 S. Ct. at 2261 (overruling Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984)).

The Court thus owes no deference to DOL’s interpretation of ERISA, but rather “begins with the text” of the statute—as all courts do. E.g., Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632, 638 (2016); United States v. Lauderdale Cnty., 914 F.3d 960, 961 (5th Cir. 2019); see also Conn. Nat’l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253–54 (1992) (“[A] legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there.”). In doing so, the Court applies the “fundamental canon of statutory construction” that the words “should be interpreted as taking their ordinary meaning at the time Congress enacted the statute.” E.g., New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, 586 U.S. 105, 113 (2019) (cleaned up); see also ANTONIN SCALIA & BRYAN A. GARNER, READING LAW: THE INTERPRETATION OF LEGAL TEXTS 69–77 (2012) (“The ordinarymeaning rule is the most fundamental semantic rule of interpretation.”); Loper Bright, 144 S. Ct. at 2266 (“[E]very statute’s meaning is fixed at the time of enactment.” (quoting Wis. Cent. Ltd. v. United States, 585 U.S. 274, 284 (2018))). The Court, moreover, must examine “the language and design of the statute as a whole.” E.g., K Mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U.S. 281, 291 (1988); see also Bustamante-Barrera v. Gonzales, 447 F.3d 388, 397 (5th Cir. 2006) (Courts “must read the statute as a whole, so as to give effect to each of its provisions without rendering any language superfluous.”).

This text could be cut and pasted into almost any decision reviewing an agency's rule.

The opinion also rejects the idea that people giving their life's savings to a financial adviser actually do indeed trust the adviser.  It follows the 5th Circuit to say that these relationships, unless ongoing, are simple ordinary arms-lengths market transactions.  It also finds that any adviser getting a commission cannot be a fiduciary.