A Hard Look at Hard Look Review in the States

In the nearly fifty-years since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Overton Park, the doctrine of hard look review as applied to administrative decisions has dramatically changed the way courts analyze and scrutinize agency action. Despite the deference owed to agencies under the Chevron-framework, hard look review continues to keep federal agencies on their toes, and enables courts to scrutinize an agency's decision when the finding of the agency, or the logic employed by it, doesn't add up. While the doctrine is now well-recognized on the federal level, and has been extensively written about by legal scholars, there has been little attention paid to the agencies and courts which most often impact the daily lives of people: those on the state level. This fifty-state survey of hard-look review in the states seeks to be a one-stop resource for scholars, lawyers, policymakers, and jurists by providing a complete survey of how every state's courts are reviewing administrative actions. By providing the reader with an analysis of over 150 cases, this survey draws a map of the current state of hard look review in the states, and will allow those doing research in the area to more efficiently determine how the courts in a given state will scrutinize the actions of an administrative agency.