On January 3, Chevron Corporation issued a press release reporting that a three-judge panel of “temporary judges presiding over appellate proceedings in the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbíos in Lago Agrio, Ecuador in an environmental lawsuit involving Texaco Petroleum Company,” had ruled against the companies.  The appellate court’s ruling upheld a February 2011 lower […]

On January 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged an investment adviser with offering to sell $500 billion in fictitious securities, using social media such as LinkedIn.  The SEC press release on the case stated that the adviser, Anthony Fields, “used LinkedIn discussions to promote fictitious ‘bank guarantees’ and ‘medium-term notes’,” and that his postings “resulted […]

The Administrative Law Section presents an annual award for the strongest piece of academic scholarship on administrative law published in the past year. The award is presented at the Section’s fall conference. This year’s winner was Professor Nina Mendelson of the University of Michigan for Disclosing “Political” Oversight of Agency Decision Making, 108 Michigan Law […]

Acting Research Director Jeff Lubbers reports that the Administrative Conference of the United States currently has several vacancies. The Executive Director position is currently open and the announcement is posted on USAJobs. The announcement will close on January 31, 2012. The announcement is here. ACUS also has two openings for attorneys: (1) An entry level position (preferably someone […]

Few documents are as daunting as a massive preamble in the Federal Register.  In other settings, huge documents are preceded by an Executive Summary.  Would that make regulatory preambles more understandable and accessible?  OIRA thinks so. On January 4, Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, issued a memorandum to the […]

Today the Supreme Court heard argument in Sacket v. EPA, No. 10-1062, concerning whether a landowner can obtain pre-enforcement review of an EPA order to remove unpermitted filling of wetlands.  The Ninth Circuit, agreeing with every other court of appeals to decide the issue, had held that such review was unavailable. Former Section chair Bill […]

Two administrative law writing competitions may be of interest. The first is the Section’s Gellhorn-Sargentich Student Essay Competition.  The assigned topic is: “Discuss any topic relating to administrative law.”  The essay can be a paper submitted for a graded law school course, a law review note or comment, or something written specifically for the competition.  The […]

The Assembly of the Administrative Conference held its 55th Plenary session on December 8-9, 2011, adopting four new recommendations: Recommendation 2011-5: Incorporation by Reference Recommendation 2011-6: International Regulatory Cooperation Recommendation 2011-7: Federal Advisory Committee Act – Issues and Proposed Reforms Recommendation 2011-8: Agency Innovations in e-Rulemaking An archive video of the 55th Plenary session proceedings is available on the […]

Here’s a post from Jeffrey Lubbers, Professor of Practice in Administrative Law at American University’s Washington College of Law: Friends—The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court’s upholding of the National Mediation Board’s election ballot counting rule today.  Judge Tatel wrote for himself and Judge Griffin.  Judge Henderson dissented. The court ruled, using Chevron, that the […]

The REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act, H.R. 10, passed the House on December 7.  The vote was 241-to-184; all Republicans present and four Democrats voted for the bill.  Politically, the bill is generally lumped together with the Regulatory Accountability Act, H.R. 3010, on which see here and here.  Thus, the Wall Street […]

A key piece of the current administration’s efforts to make more government-held information available on-line, in usable form, is the data.gov website.  Readers of this blog might be particularly interested in the “Law Data Community” on that site.  This is a portal to material that is not “data” in the usual sense, but rather a […]

Today the House of Representatives passed the Regulatory Accountability Act, H.R. 3010, by a vote of 253-167.  No Republicans voted against it; 19 Democrats voted for it.  The general expectation is that the bill will not advance in the Senate, and the White House has threatened a veto if it does, so the ultimate fate […]

The Regulatory Accountability Act, H.R. 3010, is scheduled to be considered on the floor of the House on Thursday, December 1, 2011.  The controversial bill would make sweeping changes to the APA, particularly with regard to its rulemaking provisions.  Today the White House released a Statement of Administration Policy stating that the President’s senior advisors […]

The Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, and the larger administrative law community, lost a great friend when Robert Anthony passed away on November 17. Bob, who was GMU Foundation Professor emeritus at the George Mason University School of Law, was a leading administrative law scholar and former chair of the Administrative Conference of […]

On October 25, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H.R. 3010, the “Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011.” Witnesses scheduled at the hearing included C. Boyden Gray, Boyden Gray & Associates (and former Section Chair), Christopher C. DeMuth of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Arnold Baker, owner of Baker Ready-Mix Building […]