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2026 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y Per Curiam 1 (2026)

handle is hein.journals/hpercrm2026 and id is 1 raw text is: Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Per Curiam ADMINISTRATIVE LAW'S NEOCLASSICAL TURN IN SEVEN COUNTY INFRASTRUCTURE COALITION V. EAGLE COUNTY MATT J. BENDISZ* INTRODUCTION Has administrative law taken a neoclassical turn? Articulated by Professor Jeffrey Pojan- owski in a 2020 Harvard Law Review article, neoclassical administrative law refers to a framework that tries to find[] a place for both legislative supremacy and the rule of law within the admin- istrative state.' It seeks to do so while rejecting the legal realist foundations of other approaches, instead urging a more formalist, classical understanding of law and its supremacy.2 Last term, in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County3-a case brought under the National Envi- ronmental Policy Act4 (NEPA)-the Supreme Court held first that the D.C. Circuit did not afford the [U.S. Surface Transportation] Board the substantial judicial deference required in NEPA cases,5 and second that the D.C. Circuit incorrectly interpreted NEPA as requiring the Board to consider the environmental effects of wholly separate projects.6 Immediately striking about this decision is the Court's emphasis on deferential judicial review, which initially seems hard to square with the anti-deference posture embraced in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.7 The way Seven County reconciles this apparent tension-including by insisting on a bright line between legal interpretations on the one hand and determinations of fact and policy on the other-illus- trates that modern administrative law may be developing along neoclassical lines. But although the ascent of neoclassicism may be normatively appealing to some, it underscores the need for neoclassicists to grapple with certain unresolved difficulties going forward. I. THE COURT'S HOLDING IN SEVEN COUNTY In 2020, a group of seven Utah counties known as the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition sought to build an 88-mile railway in northeastern Utah.' The Coalition wanted to connect the Uinta Basin, which contains large reserves of crude oil, to the interstate freight rail network so Harvard Law School, J.D. 2022. Thanks to Tim Borgerson, Michael Bradley, and Jeff Pojanowski for helpful comments and feedback. Thanks also to the editors of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy for shepherding this piece to completion. 1 Jeffrey A. Pojanowski, Neoclassical Administrative Law, 133 HARV. L. REV. 852, 857 (2020). 2 Id. at 856. 3 145 S. Ct. 1497 (2025). 4 42 U.S.C. § 4321, et seq. s Seven County, 145 S. Ct. at 1508. 6 Id. 7 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024). 8 Seven County, 145 S. Ct. at 1508. 1 Winter 2026 No. 1