Auer matters. It makes the difference between winning and losing on important issues that matter to real people—such as what bathroom a transgender student may use, what costs foreign employees must be reimbursed for, and the proper sentence for a convicted criminal. Consider these recent examples: 1. G. ex rel. Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, […]
This Friday the Florida State University College of Law is hosting a terrific conference entitled Environmental Law Without Courts. The conference builds on the law school’s prior conference on environmental law without Congress. As the conference website explains, “[t]his conference will bring together prominent environmental and administrative law scholars from across the country, and explore […]
At the request of Senator Hatch and other lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office recently released a report on various IRS guidance procedures. The report’s title (“Treasury and OMB Need to Reevaluate Long-standing Exemptions of Tax Regulations and Guidance”) gives away its conclusion — the Treasury and OMB have not carefully considered why the government creates […]
This article is not about the wisdom or lack thereof of Auer/Seminole Rock (“ASR”). Instead, it explores an aspect of ASR “on the ground.” Specifically, this article considers the considerable gaps between how the Supreme Court has framed the doctrine and how the United States Tax Court has applied (or not applied) it. Some of […]
Auer deference is weird. It is different from all the other forms of judicial deference to agency actions. As a result, it has become the topic of some debate. Some, like Justice Scalia, find the doctrine disturbing because it gives agencies the authority to be the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive, resulting in agencies […]
Hear Auer deference, and you’re unlikely to think of criminal law. After all, Auer deference is a doctrine of administrative law, and administrative law has traditionally been viewed as separate from criminal law. And it’s true, Auer deference does not often come up in determining whether a substantive criminal violation has occurred. But Auer deference […]
If the Supreme Court abandons the deferential approach articulated in Auer v. Robbins, will agencies lose interpretive power over their own regulations? Not necessarily. Under Auer and various predecessor cases, an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation controls, unless that interpretation is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation. Courts do not always precisely explain […]
Yesterday we had three terrific posts on whether Auer deference actually makes a difference in the federal courts of appeals. In other words, do agencies win more when courts apply Auer deference (also known as Seminole Rock deference) to give an agency’s regulatory interpretation “controlling weight unless it is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the […]
Seminole Rock has a step one inquiry too—and, like Chevron’s step one, it depends on the court’s choice of interpretive method. Chevron’s step one asks whether the authorizing statute “directly” speaks “to the precise question at issue” in the sense of clearly prohibiting or requiring the agency’s position. The method of statutory interpretation that the […]
At the American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting in January 2017 (in San Francisco), both the Administrative Law Section and Legislation Section will be hosting again their terrific new voices programs. I’ve participated in the adlaw section’s program a couple times, and it’s a terrific opportunity to get feedback from senior scholars in the […]
The Obama administration made news on Friday afternoon when it announced that it was open to discussing settlements with health plans that have sued the administration over risk corridor payments: As in any lawsuit, the Department of Justice is vigorously defending those claims on behalf of the United States. However, as in all cases where […]
Empirical study of the effects of the Seminole Rock/Auer doctrine contributed to the decision of the Solicitor General (SG) to file the petition for writ of certiorari that led to the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association and may contribute to a decision by the Supreme Court to retain some version […]
You might never have heard of Esquivel-Quintana v. Lynch, but it’s potentially the darkhorse case of this year’s Supreme Court Term. Judge Gorsuch’s recent concurrence in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch questioned the soundness of the Chevron doctrine itself—and in doing so kicked the hornet’s nest of administrative law scholars. Yet Esquivel-Quintana threatens to take a big […]
In a January memo to Senator Rubio, the Congressional Research Service laid out an argument for why the Obama administration can’t use the Judgment Fund to settle risk corridor lawsuits. (For prior coverage, see my posts here.) I think CRS is mistaken, and it’s worth explaining why—even if it means getting deep into the weeds […]
Most commentary about Auer deference has been theoretical and dramatic. Justice Scalia, for example, both the author of Auer v. Robbins and one of its early critics, decried Auer as an “evil” that allows “tyrannical laws” to be executed in a “tyrannical manner.” In Auer in Action: Deference After Talk America, I argue that this […]