Thanks to D.C.-based “Convictions” reader Mark I. Levy for sending this late entry to last month’s Recusal Quiz :
In answer to our question on seminal cases in which one more recusal would have compelled the Supreme Court to affirm without opinion—as it did last month in an Alien Tort Statute case—Mark points us to Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council (1984). Establishing a principle of deferring to administrative agencies known to this day as ” Chevron deference,” a unanimous court reversed the opinion below. That unanimity came in the form of a 6-0 vote; Justices Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day O’Connor, and William H. Rehnquist did not take part. Thus, in Chevron as in the Shelley case cited a few days ago, one more recusal would have led to a far different result.
