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Page Number: 671

529US2

Unit: $U53

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CHRISTENSEN v. HARRIS COUNTY

Breyer, J., dissenting

achieve precisely the outcome the county has all along
claimed it wants.

I respectfully dissent.

Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Ginsburg joins,

dissenting.

Justice Scalia may well be right that the position of the
Department of Labor, set forth in both brief and letter, is an
“authoritative” agency view that warrants deference under
Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council,
Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984). Ante, at 590 (opinion concurring
in part and concurring in judgment). But I do not object to
the majority’s citing Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134
(1944), instead. And I do disagree with Justice Scalia’s
statement that what he calls “Skidmore deference” is “an
anachronism.” Ante, at 589.

Skidmore made clear that courts may pay particular atten-
tion to the views of an expert agency where they represent
“specialized experience,” 323 U. S., at 139, even if they do
not constitute an exercise of delegated lawmaking authority.
The Court held that the “rulings, interpretations and opin-
ions of ” an agency, “while not controlling upon the courts by
reason of their authority, do constitute a body of experience
and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may
Id., at 140; see also Martin
properly resort for guidance.”
v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Comm’n, 499
U. S. 144, 157 (1991). As Justice Jackson wrote for the
Court, those views may possess the “power to persuade,”
even where they lack the “power to control.” Skidmore,
supra, at 140.

Chevron made no relevant change.

It simply focused
upon an additional, separate legal reason for deferring to cer-
tain agency determinations, namely, that Congress had dele-
gated to the agency the legal authority to make those deter-
minations. See Chevron, supra, at 843–844. And, to the
extent there may be circumstances in which Chevron-type