Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
19,035 federal appellate · 4,771 district · 1,758 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 45,285 later decisions (579 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Williams v. Taylor (2000), Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987)
19,035 federal appellate · 4,771 district · 1,758 state decisions — followed in 48 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedNatural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Gorsuch (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 7502 · 42 U.S.C. § 7503 · 42 U.S.C. § 7607
Relies on Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Udall v. Tallman · Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation Same · Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill
Cited together with Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of United States Inc v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Consumer Alert · Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca · Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe · Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Udall v. Tallman
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 45,285 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue.”
2,688 later decisions quote this exact passage“an agency's construction of the statute which it administers,”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage“a permissible construction of the [SDWA]”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage
How later courts have treated this case
Across 185 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 98cited without characterization
- 75followed
- 12explained
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.