Last week, the D.C. Circuit handed the Trump Administration two big victories based upon Dalton v. Specter, which two panels took to stand for a broad principle limiting judicial review. It decided eight other cases, and many of those were consequential administrative law decisions too. The Specter in Global Health Council v. Trump and NTEU […]
Here is the list of works included in the August 2025 Comparative Administrative Law Scholarship Corner, which is curated by Eduardo Jordão (FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro), with the assistance of Eduarda Onzi. The Scholarship Corner is a resource provided through the Comparative Administrative Law listserv. For more information about this terrific resource, check out […]
From Timothy Lytton: The AALS Administrative Law Section invites nominations for the 2026 Emerging Scholar Award for scholarship published between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2025. Fulltime faculty members without tenure at the time of the work’s publication (including individuals with fellowships, visiting assistant professorships, or similar positions) are eligible. Nominations should be directed […]
Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “Loper Bright’s Disingenuity,” by Cary Coglianese and David Froomkin. Here is the abstract: Loper Bright prompted a tidal wave of reaction throughout the legal community when the Supreme Court announced it was overruling Chevron, the most frequently cited Court decision in administrative law. But Loper Bright cannot mean […]
Last week I blogged about the first paper from Andrew Hammond and my Kisor dataset. This week Andrew and I have posted to SSRN a draft of a shorter, more theoretical essay, entitled The End of Administrative Pragmatism?, which explores how Justice Kagan’s administrative law jurisprudence arguably represents the best of administrative pragmatism (as Jeff […]
Here is the July 2025 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. Lots of great new administrative law scholarship to read this summer! I see that the Virginia Law Review is publishing two of the papers from this SSRN reading […]
The Roberts Court has sometimes hinted at supporting a strong version of the “unitary executive branch” theory—one in which Presidents can personally control all executive functions. The Court’s hints, in turn, have emboldened the Trump Administration to take broad views of presidential power. This term, however, the Court poured cold water on that view. Judging […]
For decades, federal prosecutors have relied on elastic statutes to pursue novel schemes that Congress never spelled out. Proponents of this elasticity contend that policy-infused interpretations honor Congress’s larger purpose of policing sophisticated schemes, while textualists warn that such broad statutes erode fair notice, invite arbitrary enforcement, and transfer the power to define crime from […]
From the Yale Law Journal: The Yale Law Journal’s Ninth Annual Student Essay Competition challenges the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems. This year’s topic is “Emerging Issues in the Executive Power.” The Competition is open to current law students and recent law-school graduates nationwide. Up to three winners […]
The D.C. Circuit issued seven opinions last week, but most of them were not administrative law cases. They addressed international arbitration (disclosure: I represented amici in support of appellees in that case); constitutional claims related to reincarceration following a mistaken release; fraud claims against federal employees; the False Claims Act; and whistleblower awards for reports […]
From Professor Tim Lytton: Each May I organize a book manuscript workshop in the areas of torts, administrative law, or legal history. Georgia State University provides funding to invite 10-15 leading scholars from around the country for a one-day in-person workshop. Previous manuscripts include: I am currently seeking a suitable manuscript for May 2026. Authors […]
Several years ago, Andrew Hammond and I set out to read and code every lower-court decision that invoked Kisor v. Wilkie when applying Auer deference to agencies’ interpretations of their own regulations. We read around 1,000 cases, all that were issued in the first five years after Kisor was decided (2019-2024). This project looked promising […]
Columbia University recently reached a $221 million settlement with the Trump Administration over charges of antisemitism and other civil rights violations. As critics have noted, the administration engineered this deal by ignoring procedural and substantive limitations on civil rights enforcement: rather than follow required procedures, it simply terminated grants and contracts to create pressure for […]
The D.C. Circuit prides itself on making its decisions public in a timely fashion. An internal rule helps make that happen. A judge who has failed to circulate to the panel more than two of his assigned opinions by August 15 will not be allowed to hear arguments until he has. At first glance, one […]
Kristin, Dick, and I have just published the Summer 2025 Update to our federal administrative law casebook. From the introduction: Administrative law is a dynamic field, and there are always interesting new cases being decided and new debates unfolding. The past two years have seen some big administrative law cases from the Supreme Court. In […]