310
Stevens, J., dissenting
to issue regulations interpreting § 601 on the assumption that their construction will—if reasonable—be incorporated into our understanding of § 601's meaning.19
To resolve this case, however, it is unnecessary to answer the question whether our cases interpreting the reach of § 601 should be reinterpreted in light of Chevron. If one understands the relationship between §§ 601 and 602 through the prism of either Chevron or our prior Title VI cases, the question presented all but answers itself. If the regulations promulgated pursuant to § 602 are either an authoritative construction of § 601's meaning or prophylactic rules necessary to actualize the goals enunciated in § 601, then it makes no sense to differentiate between private actions to enforce § 601 and private actions to enforce § 602. There is but one private action to enforce Title VI, and we already know that such an action exists.20 See Cannon, 441 U. S., at 703.
19 The legislative history strongly indicates that the Congress that adopted Title VI and the administration that proposed the statute intended that the agencies and departments would utilize the authority granted under § 602 to shape the substantive contours of § 601. For example, during the hearings that preceded the passage of the statute, Attorney General Kennedy agreed that the administrators of the various agencies would have the power to define "what constitutes discrimination" under Title VI and "what acts or omissions are to be forbidden." Civil Rights—The President's Program, 1963: Hearings before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., 399-400 (1963); see also Civil Rights: Hearings before the House Committee on the Judiciary, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 4, p. 2740 (1963) (remarks of Attorney General Kennedy) (only after the agencies "establish the rules" will recipients "under-stand what they can and cannot do"). It was, in fact, concern for this broad delegation that inspired Congress to amend the pending bill to ensure that all regulations issued pursuant to Title VI would have to be approved by the President. See 42 U. S. C. § 2000d-1 (laying out the requirement); 110 Cong. Rec. 2499 (1964) (remarks of Rep. Lindsay introducing the amendment). For further discussion of this legislative history, see Guardians, 463 U. S., at 615-624 (Marshall, J., dissenting); Abernathy, Title VI and the Constitution: A Regulatory Model for Defining "Discrimi-nation," 70 Geo. L. J. 1 (1981).
20 The majority twice suggests that I "be[g] the question" whether a private right of action to enforce Title VI necessarily encompasses a right
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