Chadha

When Jagdish Chadha, a Kenyan of Indian extraction, decided in 1974 to fight his impending deportation, he unwittingly stumbled into one of the most far-reaching separation-of-powers battles of this century. In 1983, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in his favour it effectively threw out hundreds of laws - more laws than it had overturned in its entire previous history - including acts that dealt with war powers, arms sales, and a host of consumer and environmental matters. The Chadha case covers a broad canvas, involving high-level figures in the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, influential congressmen, powerful interest groups such as the American Bar Association and Ralph Nadar's Public Citizen, federal judges, and many others. The author has interviewed nearly all the major participants and has thoroughly combed the available legislative, administrative, and judicial records.