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Keywords

citizen science, loper bright, loper-bright, auer, skidmore, chevron, citizen suit, citizen data, EPA, environmental law, deference, administrative law

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v.

Raimondo removed the judicial obligation to defer to the Environmental

Protection Agency’s statutory interpretations, overturning forty years of

Chevron v. NRDC jurisprudence. Now, generalist judges must

independently evaluate complex scientific data when determining

statutory meaning, creating the risk that well-resourced industry parties

will use their litigation advantages to secure pollution-permissive statutory

interpretations. Without deference to EPA’s technical understanding and

public welfare considerations, environmental litigation outcomes

increasingly depend on which party can most persuasively present

environmental data in court. This interpretation shift widens the

environmental enforcement gap and disproportionately harms historically

overburdened communities because corporate polluters are better situated

to out-resource community plaintiffs during litigation. This article argues

that citizen science is a powerful tool to bridge this gap. In an unequally-

resourced courtroom, communities can generate and present credible

scientific evidence of environmental harm through methods such as air

quality monitoring, biomonitoring, and Geographic Imaging Systems data

assessments without requiring formal technical expertise or significant

financial resources. Citizen science can supply the evidentiary foundation

to prove environmental law violations and persuade judges to rule in ways

that reflect the realities of environmental harm on the ground instead of

those argued by better-resourced industry defendants. Citizen suits allow

private citizens to bring enforcement actions under federal environmental

statutes and provide a legal vehicle to present citizen science evidence in

court. Together, citizen science and citizen suits offer a feasible and

compelling legal mechanism for communities advocating for their

environmental health. In light of the EPA’s 2025 rollback of environmental

justice initiatives, these tools are increasingly needed to equip and

empower communities to advance environmental justice when the courts

and EPA are less positioned to protect them and fulfill the public welfare

purpose that environmental statutes were designed to serve

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