Biography

Professor Kovacs teaches Natural Resources and Administrative Law.

Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty in 2011, she spent twelve years in the U.S.Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section.  She wrote more than 100 appellate and Supreme Court briefs and argued more than sixty appeals in all thirteen of the federal circuit courts of appeals, twice en banc, and in three state supreme courts.  Her cases covered a wide range of areas including environmental, administrative, and constitutional law, both civil and criminal.  Among other cases, Professor Kovacs defended the Navy's use of low frequency active sonar and the display of a Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve; she prosecuted crimes under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act; she pursued a claim to compensate the Oneida Indians for the State of New York's unlawful purchase of their land in the early 19th Century; and she defended the Endangered Species Act against Fifth Amendment takings claims.  Professor Kovacs also spent three years litigating primarily constitutional claims as an attorney in the Baltimore City Law Department, and she clerked for the Honorable Robert C. Murphy, former Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals.  

Professor Kovacs is a cum laude graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center.  When she’s not writing about the Administrative Procedure Act, Professor Kovacs enjoys refereeing rugby and hiking with her Australian cattle dog, Earl.

Publications

The Administrative Procedure Act is a Superstatute - And Why it Matters  (in progress).

Eagles, Indian Tribes, and the Free Exercise of Religion, 47 Loyola L.A. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2013). http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2050558.

Leveling the Deference Playing Field, 90 Oregon L. Rev. 583 (2011).

A History of the Military Authority Exception in the Administrative Procedure Act, 62 Admin. L. Rev. 673 (2010).   

Revealing Redundancy: The Collision Between Federal Sovereign Immunity and Nonstatutory Review, 54 Drake L. Rev. 77 (Fall 2005), republished in Chinese in 29 Admin. Action and Admin. Litig. 510 (2008).   

Accepting the Relegation of Taking Claims to State Courts: The Federal Courts’ Misguided Attempts to Avoid Preclusion under Williamson County, 26 Ecology Law Quarterly 1(1999).   

Recognizing Gay and Lesbian Families: Marriage and Parental Rights, 5 Tulane Journal of Law and Sexuality 513 (1995).