This year seems a good time to take stock of “presidential administration,” both in theory and in practice. It is, after all, a year of presidential transition, illustrating the ever-growing changes in law and policy that follow every succession of one presidency after the last. It’s also the twentieth anniversary of Elena Kagan’s landmark article. […]
Last year, I was asked by the Supreme Court in Collins v. Yellen to argue in defense of the constitutionality of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s structure. Collins addressed a statute that purports to only allow the president to remove the FHFA’s director “for cause.” A few months ago, the Court concluded that this provision […]
Happy (belated) Constitution Day! This is my first post for Notice and Comment, and I am grateful to the Yale Journal on Regulation and my fellow authors of the D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed for the opportunity. Appropriately, the Constitution plays a role in both decisions issued by the D.C. Circuit on Constitution Day. […]
When the Supreme Court holds that a particular section within a statute is invalid or unenforceable, it typically performs a severability analysis to determine whether the rest of that statute must be declared invalid or enjoined, as well. As Justice Thomas laments in his concurrence in Murphy v. NCAA, the Court’s severability doctrine “requires judges […]
The D.C. Circuit did not decide any cases this week. But that doesn’t mean there is no news. To the contrary: What a wonderful — and sobering — sentiment. The D.C. Circuit is a serious place and when it is at its best, the judges truly have a common calling. I recall (as I’ve recounted […]
After Judge Stephen F. Williams died last year, during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Yale Journal on Regulation published many tributes from his clerks and other admirers. They appeared here at N&C (see here, here, and here); later, the Journal published a symposium issue (Vol. 38, No. 3) with contributions from Judge […]
The Trump Administration displayed profound disdain for long-standing policies and norms, as well as the career federal employees who often serve as their guardians. Those career officials, formerly disparaged as “bureaucrats,” but more recently collectively cast as “the deep state,” resisted, sometimes by speaking out publicly. This pattern was particularly pronounced in the field of […]
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Administrative Law is pleased to announce the “New Voices in Administrative Law” program for the 2022 AALS Annual Meeting, which will be held entirely online. The New Voices program gives junior administrative law scholars an opportunity to receive useful feedback on their work from more senior […]
Tomorrow is the first day of the D.C. Circuit’s new term. And today is the first day of Version 2.0 of D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed, your weekly source of information on the nation’s “second most important court.” Between 2015 and 2020, I closely tracked the D.C. Circuit’s cases.* Over time, I learned the patterns; […]
Several scholars that I respect urged me to look at the Supreme Court’s most recent standing decisions to decide whether I agree with their belief that they signal a major change in the way the Court decides standing cases. This essay summarizes the results of my review of those decisions. I have long considered standing […]
Many municipalities offer time-limited free parking in municipally-owned public lots. Parking authorities enforce those time limits by having parking enforcement officers make periodic visits to the lot. During each visit the officers chalk the tires of all cars present in the parking lot. If any car remains when the next periodic visit occurs, the chalk […]
Earlier this week over at Jotwell, I reviewed Emily Bremer‘s terrific new article The Rediscovered Stages of Agency Adjudication, which is forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review. Here’s the intro to that review: A couple years ago, Melissa Wasserman and I charted the new and old worlds of formal agency adjudication. The old world, we explained, consisted of […]
As someone who regularly teaches state and local government law, I was so excited to see the launch of the State and Local Government Law Blog earlier this week. The intersections between administrative law and local government law are so rich, and I’m not just referring to state and local administrative law. The field of […]
With lots of new and exciting administrative law scholarship posted to SSRN in recent weeks, my reading listing is getting long. Here is the August 2021 Edition of the most-downloaded recent papers (those announced in the last 60 days) from SSRN’s U.S. Administrative Law eJournal, which is edited by Bill Funk. Administrative Sabotage by David […]
Last week, in Biden v. Texas, the Supreme Court allowed a lower court to block the Biden Administration’s rescission of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy. Several commentators have suggested that this was the logical consequence of last year’s decision blocking Trump’s own rescission of the Obama-era policy of “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA). […]