New Faculty Publication: Kathryn Watts on Justice Stevens and Securing the Public Interest

Kathryn A. Watts, From Chevron to Massachusetts: Justice Stevens's Approach to Securing the Public Interest, 43 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1021-62 (2010).

This article analyzes two significant administrative law decisions authored by Justice Stevens: Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. 467 U.S. 837 (1984) and Massachusetts v. EPA 549 U.S. 497(2007). Both cases involved the EPA and the Clean Air Act but seemed "to send very different messages about the judiciary's policing function." Nevertheless, Professor Watts, former Law Clerk to Justice Stevens, concludes that Justice Stevens emerges as a "strong adherent of purposivism," enabling him to give agencies leeway when their actions further Congress's goals while checking them when their actions thwart those same goals.