From Oren Tamir and the Comparative Administrative Law Listserv:

There are different types of law review articles.  But over the years I have had a handful that I call my “mad scientist” papers. These papers spring from ideas that honestly seem a bit preposterous when they come into my mind but have enough heft that I play around with them to see if they […]

We’re now over a month into the second shutdown of the second Trump administration.  What have we learned? Mainly that the problem of “separation of parties, not powers” is growing worse and, in consequence, Congress’s power of the purse may be unravelling. Shutdowns happen because of time-limited appropriations. By providing funds to most agencies for […]

On February 20, the Trump administration announced the imposition of tariffs pursuant to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a section designed to counteract balance-of-payments crises. A number of helpful articles have since appeared to explain that a trade deficit is not the same thing as a balance-of-payments deficit, let alone the sort of fundamental international payments […]

Aaron Nielson and I have posted to SSRN a draft of a new paper, entitled Article II and the Civil Service, which is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review. Here’s the abstract: The federal government employs more than two million civil servants. Most are hired through a competitive process centered on competence and cannot be […]

Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “Making Broadcast Content Regulation Aggressive Again,” by Stuart Minor Benjamin. Here is the abstract: The Federal Communications Commission has statutory authority over broadcasting that far exceeds any governmental authority over online platforms, cable television, or newspapers: Every license renewal or transfer depends on the FCC’s determination that it […]

For the first time in American history, the Supreme Court is poised to decide what it means for the president to remove a principal officer “for cause.” The case—which arises from the attempted removal of Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System—has major implications for central bank independence […]

Lost in the extensive coverage of the Supreme Court’s February 20, 2026 opinion invalidating most of President Trump’s tariffs was the fact that there were two related cases before it[1] and that it had entirely dismissed one of them. The lead case, in fact.  That coverage gap is understandable. The only mention the Court makes […]

In holding that law enforcement officers could not place listening devices on the outside of a public phone booth without a warrant, the Supreme Court famously proclaimed: “The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.”  Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967).  That insight provides perspective on two recent decisions regarding the collection and […]

For the past year or so, I’ve been working on a project for the Administrative Conference of the United States on best practices for drafting regulatory preambles in light of recent developments in judicial review of agency action. The draft report is now available. In preparing the report, I interviewed nineteen current and former agency […]

On February 20th, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a large portion of President Trump’s vast tariff regime, holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. In response, the Trump administration announced its determination to find alternate routes for its America First trade policy. While the […]