Journal Article

\CHEVRON\ AND THE REASONABLE LEGISLATOR

Manning, John F.

2014

Overview

Justice Breyer is a quintessential Legal Process judge. In their influential Legal Process materials, Professors Henry Hart and Albert Sacks tell you that all law is purposive, and that interpreters should presume, if at all possible, that the legislature was made up of reasonable persons pursuing reasonable purposes reasonably. Justice Breyer likes that idea. He tells you that when difficult statutory questions are at issue, courts do better to focus foremost upon statutory purpose rather than struggle with the fine points of the text. From this premise, it follows that a judge should ask how a reasonable member of Congress would have wanted a court to interpret the statute in light of present circumstances of the particular case. This approach, Justice Breyer argues, promotes legislative accountability because the ordinary citizen evaluates laws in terms of their general purposes rather than the minutiae of the text. It also means that laws will work better for the people they are presently meant to affect.

• Publisher: The Harvard Law Review Association,Harvard Law Review Association
• Subject: Accountability / Administrative agencies / Administrative courts / Administrative law / Administrative Procedure Act-US / Breyer, Stephen G / ChevronTexaco Corporation / Courts / Delegation of authority / ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JUSTICE STEPHEN G. BREYER / Federal court decisions / Government agencies / Interpreters / Judges / Judges & magistrates / Justice / Law / Legal systems / Legislation / Legislators / Legislatures / Litigation / Public sector / Reasoning / Rule of law / Statutory interpretation / Statutory law / U.S.A