Deference, Scrutiny, and Constitutional Adjudication

We discuss institutional trust and distrust in Lochner, Carolene Products, and Obergefell.

Note that this was recorded before the Supreme Court overturned Chevron and during a semester when the students had read Marbury v. Madison. You have likely read Marbury before or at least heard of it. Upshot: in that case the Court decided for the first time that it had the power to and would refuse to enforce (a.k.a.-ish strike down or invalidate) a federal statute that conflicted with provisions of the Constitution. This is the power of judicial review and now applies to all state actions, not just the enactment and enforcement of federal statutes.

Interpretation

Joe and I discuss statutory interpretation and the debate over its methods. Note that you'll hear brief references to a case called Chevron, which we won't be discussing until next week. Don't let it confuse you. For our purposes this week, you can ignore it, but it's enough to get the gist that it's a Clean Air Act case in which the government and environmental groups fought over the interpretation of terms in the statute.