In a post last week , my co-blogger Daniel Hemel explained how Section 707(a)(2)(A) may allow the IRS to deny the tax benefits associated with so-called carried interests, even in the absence of legislative action. That statute essentially grants the IRS the regulatory authority to alter the tax treatment of transactions between partners and partnerships, […]
The CDC announced today that the number of pregnant women in the U.S. infected with the Zika virus has tripled from 48 to 157. The escalation is a reminder of how difficult a public health emergency Zika will be to address given the complex nature of its victims. In my last post, I explained how […]
One night during the summer of 1987, Judge David Sentelle communed with the dead. Sentelle, then of the Western District of North Carolina, was confronted with a tricky Pullman Abstention question. As he struggled with the issue, he asked what the Honorable Wilson Warlick would do. Judge Warlick had been dead for almost a decade. […]
Way back in 2005, one of the cosponsors of this blog, the Ad Law Section of the ABA, published A Guide to Judicial Review and Political Review of Federal Agencies , edited by Professors Michael Herz and John F. Duffy and featuring chapters by a murderers’ row of leading administrative law scholars. In addition to […]
This morning, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Luna Torres v. Lynch, and it’s bad news if you are a non-citizen arsonist. The Court affirmed the Second Circuit, which had affirmed the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision that Jorge Luna Torres’ New York conviction for arson is an aggravated felony, making him deportable. […]
In my last post, I wrote about whether the Reserve Bank presidents were more like the CEO of the Girl Scouts or Warren Buffett on the one hand, or officers of the United States exercising significant government authority on the other. I think the answer is the latter, especially in light of how much authority […]
Don’t panic about House v. Burwell. From the New York Times on what might happen if the House prevails in House v. Burwell: A study by the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that premiums for midlevel “silver plans” could rise by nearly 30 percent without [cost-sharing] reimbursements. Many consumers would be protected, since […]
On May 17, 2016, the Energy Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice will hold a teleconference on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing, LLC decision, a watershed case concerning the scope of a state’s powers, consistent with the Federal Power Act, to subsidize new […]
This week, Chief Judge Garland sent his questionnaire to the Senate. As I reviewed that “lengthy” submission, my mind turned again to “brooding spirts.” In particular, it is interesting that Garland’s list of his “most significant” opinions includes two dissents. To begin, here is Garland’s list: Cause of Action v. FTC (2015) Wagner v. FEC […]
Having previously held that the House of Representatives has standing to sue, the district court in House v. Burwell has now held that the Obama administration is violating the Appropriations Clause in making cost-sharing payments under the ACA in the absence of the requisite congressional appropriation. The court has stayed its decision pending appeal, meaning […]
I’m guessing I’m not alone in looking at a pile of final exams to grade. In case you need a distraction (or a start on your summer reading list), here is the April 2016 edition of the most-downloaded recent papers (those announced in the last 60 days) from SSRN’s U.S. Administrative Law eJournal, which is […]
Gretchen Morgenson writes in this week’s New York Times Sunday Business section: There is a lot about this problem of income inequality—and about the economy over all—that Mr. Obama cannot control. Still, there is something he could do right now to help narrow the widening gulf between rich and poor. In one deft move, Mr. […]
This has been a quiet week at the D.C. Circuit. There was only one published opinion—and it’s about attorneys’ fees. So with this extra time, why not think a little bit more about Amtrak? (Or, if you would rather spend your “five minutes a week” on something else, enjoy this or this instead.) Dan Hemel’s […]
In my next two posts, I will investigate the relationship between regulatory approval of vaccines and the response to the global public health emergency surrounding the spread of the Zika virus. That emergency has resurrected and brought into sharper relief some of the most vexing questions surrounding the regulatory state and pregnancy: the appropriate circumstances, […]
From his perch at Politico, Dan Diamond has launched what promises to be a terrific new health-policy podcast, Pulse Check, with an interview with CMS’s acting administrator, Andy Slavitt. The interview is refreshingly candid: among other things, Slavitt confesses that the Obama administration has a lot of work to do to win back the hearts […]