Viewed from the perspective of a student preparing to take a final exam in administrative law, the doctrinal status quo with respect to judicial review of agency actions is a confused mess. Courts apply, and scholars debate, at least two versions of Skidmore, at least five versions of Chevron, and a constantly evolving version of […]
In a late December split decision, In Re A Cmty. Voice, et al. v. U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sharply expanded an agency’s responsibilities under APA § 555(b), which requires that “within a reasonable time, each agency shall proceed to conclude a matter presented to it.” The […]
That’s the title of a new book by Lisa Manheim and Kathryn Watts. From the press release: The book emerged from a class Watts and a colleague put together — at the request of students — within weeks of Trump’s election. The feedback they received, along with news coverage of the class, helped to confirm […]
Have you ever read the unabridged Les Misérables?* One of my favorite activities — unfortunately, not one I do all that often — is reading 19th-century fiction. For a long time, my favorite author was Thackeray. Recently, however, I’ve started re-reading the greatest hits of Victor Hugo. And sure enough, Les Misérables is an amazing […]
Last week, I highlighted ACUS’s five recently adopted recommendations, including Recommendation 2017-5, Agency Guidance Through Policy Statements. It is noteworthy that this recommendation was accompanied by a rare separate statement, this one from ACUS Senior Fellow Professor Ronald M. Levin. Section 302.6(c)(1) of ACUS’s bylaws, which allows members to publish separate statements, provides that: A member who disagrees in whole or in […]
Donald Trump loves drama. His tweets more often provoke feuds than illuminate policies. To many of its observers, the Trump Presidency is also a nail-biter of a different sort: will the separation-of-powers survive him? Or is a constitutional “crisis” (whatever that means) afoot? All this hand-wringing occurs amidst a multi-front assault on the administrative state. […]
Happy new year! 2017 was a great year for administrative law scholarship. Here is the final (December) 2017 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. A Bureaucracy – If You Can Keep It by Mila Sohoni (131 Harvard Law […]
As Chris Walker generously highlighted in an earlier post, I have written a forthcoming article on a separation-of-powers question I think has received insufficient attention: the extent of Congress’s authority to control executive constitutional authorities through restricted or conditional appropriations. For those interested, I have summarized my main arguments in prior posts on the Take […]
On Thursday, I had the privilege of participating on a terrific administrative law panel at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting in San Diego. The Federalist Society organized the panel, which meant the four panelists brought very diverse perspectives to the discussion on how to reform the administrative state. Here’s the description of the […]
Something unexpected happened last Saturday night. I was hard at work — true story, grading exams — in my home when the clock struck midnight. At that moment I heard fireworks! And it was not just from one house. I was more than a little puzzled. Who in the world would launch fireworks to celebrate […]
Paul Ryan has proposed that in the new year he will tackle entitlement reform. With Democrats likely to be united in opposition, Republicans again will have to turn to the reconciliation process to avoid a Senate filibuster. As the reconciliation process is tied to the budget process, Republicans must wait before they may consider new […]
As part of the new tax bill, Congress imposed limits on the Section 164 deduction for state and local taxes paid or accrued. Under prior law, taxpayers could generally deduct those taxes without limitation, even when those taxes were personal in nature (that is, when those taxes were not connected to business or investment activities). […]
Start 2018 off right by reading the five new recommendations adopted by the Administrative Conference at its 68th Plenary session! Although this was my first plenary session as an ACUS Public Member, it was my eleventh (!!) plenary session overall. (I attended the other ten when I was on the ACUS staff.) It was a genuine […]
Professor Andrew Rudalevige of Bowdoin College has written two articles on the creation of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA): one just published in the 2018 Winter Edition of National Affairs (Number 34) and the other an earlier and more-detailed presentation published by the Midwest Political Science Association. Professor Rudalevige concludes: Presidential authority […]
In the aftermath of Watergate, a young — well, young-ish — Antonin Scalia found himself defending executive privilege before Congress. This is how he closed his remarks: “I realize that anyone saying a few kind words about executive privilege after the events of the last few years is in a position somewhat akin the man […]