To Repudiate or Merely Curtail? Justice Gorsuch and Chevron Deference

Abstract

Justice Gorsuch is regarded as one of the Chevron doctrine's most ardent foes, largely though not exclusively based on his opinions as a Tenth Circuit judge in De Niz Robles v. Lynch and Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch. Written for a symposium entitled Life After Scalia: Justice Gorsuch and Modern Textualism on the Supreme Court, this essay takes a deeper dive into Justice Gorsuch's Chevron jurisprudence as a Tenth Circuit judge to develop a more nuanced account and to make some predictions regarding how his views of Chevron may shape future Supreme Court decisionmaking.

Keywords: Chevron, Gorsuch, Judicial Review, Deference, Statutory Interpretation

JEL Classification: K20, K23, K41