In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case, finding that the Trump administration was arbitrary and capricious in its rescission of the policy in violation of a core administrative law principle. According to the Court, the administration failed to consider the reliance interests of DACA recipients in its […]
With all the talk of recent potential changes to Congress’ quorum requirements to allow remote or proxy voting, I thought now would be a good time to place the potential change in the historical context of Congress’ major changes to the quorum requirements and how any legal challenges could have long-term impacts upon how Congress […]
In America, to be agnostic about place is likely being agnostic about race. As scholars grapple with racism in Administrative Law, it is important to consider place-based scholarship from the perspectives of Environmental Justice (EJ) and Geography. Both provide important insights into how administrative agencies can be instruments of strategic-structural racism and how administrative law can facilitate […]
The federal government has conducted 23 decennial censuses. The 2020 census will be the 24th. You can complete the 2020 census here using the 12-digit code you should have received in the mail. If you do not have your code, you can still complete the census! Conducted in the shadow of coronavirus, this census will […]
I’m pleased to report that the University of Pennsylvania Law Review has agreed to publish my latest article: The Minor Questions Doctrine. Here’s the abstract: Few aspects of administrative law are as controversial as the major questions doctrine—the exception to Chevron deference that bars courts from deferring to an agency’s otherwise reasonable interpretation of an […]
About a month ago Kristin Hickman tweeted the following: The promised call for papers is now live. The good folks at the Duke Law Journal are owed many thanks for organizing and hosting. It should be a lot of fun. Duke Law Journal’s Annual Administrative Law Symposium Call for Papers The Duke Law Journal invites […]
Nope!* * It’s been a good run. If you’re interested, here is the complete list of posts: August 2015: Obamacare Round 3? King Solomon and the APA “It was the best of times ….” Can You Keep a Secret? September 2015: The Second Most Important Court? The Future of […]
The D.C. Circuit didn’t decide any cases this week … but the White House today did announce its nominee for the Court’s upcoming vacancy: Judge Justin Walker. Here is the announcement: I don’t know Judge Walker well. We met once at an academic workshop on administrative law. In my limited experience, I found him to […]
With COVID-19 cases still common throughout the United States and unemployment around 10 percent, many Americans are in a dire economic situation. As the COVID-19 economic stimulus recently expired, and President Trump and Congress have been unable to reach any agreement on an extension, President Trump unilaterally issued four executive orders for economic relief. Many […]
The nondelegation doctrine says that a statute can give rulemaking power to an agency so long as the statute contains an intelligible principle directing how that power must be used. For years, the doctrine was a joke. Courts routinely upheld laws with the slimmest of intelligible principles, and sometimes they even read intelligible principles into […]
Through a White House memorandum, President Trump directed the Treasury Department to exercise the authority conferred by Section 7508A. Under that statute, the Treasury may extend various otherwise strict deadlines under the tax code, including those for the payment of taxes. The White House memorandum contemplates that the Treasury will use Section 7508A to extend […]
For a half dozen years or so, I’ve had the privilege of directing my law school’s Washington, DC, summer program. Each summer we place about twenty students (mostly rising 2Ls) in our DC summer program—usually in unpaid internships and most often at federal agencies, on the Hill, and at non-profits. As part of the summer […]
Dodd-Frank turned 10 years old recently, an occasion for retrospectives about what the statute has accomplished as implemented, and where it has been found wanting. The retrospectives have established, if we did not already know it, that the meaning of Dodd-Frank was not fixed in stone by Congress in July, 2010, but, rather, can only […]
In a recent post, I wrote about the states that have abandoned Chevron and Auer like deference in recent years. I want to now turn my attention to a much less praiseworthy set of states, those who simply cannot make up their mind about whether or not to defer to agencies. In my article, The […]
The government might always struggle to determine, on its own, whether its regulatory choices reinforce racist structures and systems, such as those at work in the provision of health care. But the public need not passively wait for an agency to pay attention to these issues. The public comment process for rulemaking under the Administrative […]