For the last forty years, courts have been especially deferential to federal agencies’ claims of scientific expertise. And in the last year, we have seen the Supreme Court grapple repeatedly with questions of administrative decisions related to managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

How much deference should courts afford agencies on scientific and technical matters? This was among the subjects discussed in a recent Gray Center roundtable on “Facts, Science, and Expertise in the Administrative State.” The roundtable’s working papers are now on the Center’s web site, and in this podcast two of the authors, Jonathan Adler and Don Elliott, discuss their own papers on the “super-deference” doctrine of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. v. NRDC. They’re joined by the Center’s Executive Director, Adam White.

This episode features Jonathan Adler, E. Donald Elliott, and Adam White.

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