Federal employees seeking to challenge the Trump Administration’s unprecedented efforts to dismantle federal agencies and decimate the civil service have faced a dilemma. The federal Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) generally permits employees to contest serious adverse personnel actions only before an administrative body, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), rather than in federal district […]
Recently, as noted in this blog, a Fifth Circuit panel considered whether the names and email addresses of low-level federal employees who worked on climate change issues must be provided to a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requester. The divided panel issued a strong pro-transparency decision, concluding that government employees, even low-level ones, generally lack […]
In NLRB v. AllService Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc., a divided Fifth Circuit panel held that the NLRB could not revive a 2013 order that the Board had previously abandoned. The NLRB’s underlying complaint alleged, inter alia, that the defendant had laid off several employees due to anti-union animus. The NLRB adopted an order that largely […]
The D.C. Circuit issued another unusual en banc order last week in challenges to funding cuts at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It also vacated and remanded in two cases involving immigration standards of review. And it denied petitions for review in an SEC whistleblower case and a FERC case. “Special En Banc” Before […]
The D.C. Circuit published two opinions last week. Page v. Comey addressed an already-reported on lawsuit in which Carter Page, an advisor to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, alleged that the FBI unlawfully surveilled him and damaged his reputation by leaking information to the press. In 2022, the district court dismissed his complaint for failure to state a claim. […]
Many of Trump’s personnel choices have been front page news (…) but you have not seen many headlines about the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Long considered a very important policy official, OIRA Administrator nominations have started slipping to the back burner. Here’s an update with some new context that […]
ACUS is requesting information about intergovernmental partnerships as part of the ongoing project Federal Agency Collaboration with State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Governments.
On Wednesday, May 21, the U.S. Senate took a series of procedural votes that, depending on who you ask, either “cross[ed] a point of no return” in terms of the chamber’s filibuster or “preserv[ed] the Senate’s prerogatives.” How did we get to this point and what actually happened? Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), enacted […]
The Trump Administration, using a range of means, has sought to decimate the federal civil service. That has included efforts to fire probationary employees, initiate large-scale reductions in force at multiple agencies, and place large groups of employees on administrative leave. At the same time, the administration has hampered the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), […]
Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “The Lost English Roots of Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking,” by Rephael G. Stern, which was recently published by the Yale Law Journal and posted to SSRN. Here is the abstract: Notice-and-comment rulemaking is arguably the most important procedure in the modern administrative state. Influential accounts even frame it as the […]
It is clear now how the Trump Administration plans to handle what remains of modern administrative law while advancing its agenda. The plan is to break it. Just look at the Administration’s conduct over its first 100 days. Wacky executive orders that are no less dangerous for becoming instantly infamous. Abuses of interim final rules, […]
In National Religious Broadcasters v. FCC, the Fifth Circuit struck down the FCC’s 2024 Rule requiring television and radio broadcasters to annually report employee demographic information using a form known as Form 395-B. The case, brought by a coalition of broadcasters and industry associations, centered on whether the FCC had the statutory authority to mandate […]
Lots of important arguments last week, including in the cases related to the removals of board members from the NLRB and the Merit Systems Protection Board and the CFPB. On the opinion side, the week was less headline-worthy, but still relevant for those interested in the interaction between administrative and judicial remedies. The opinion in […]
When the Supreme Court first articulated the major questions doctrine a few years ago, many viewed it primarily as an antiregulatory tool. But as the Court has applied the doctrine, it is more aptly understood as “an interpretive tool” that draws heavily on “common sense as to the manner in which Congress is likely to […]
In Texas Public Policy Foundation v. United States Department of State, the Fifth Circuit held that the State Department must disclose the names and email addresses of rank-and-file employees pursuant to a FOIA request. The opinion, written by Judge Wilson, forces the Trump Administration to choose whether to take its pitch to the Supreme Court. […]