Here is a call for nominations from the AALS Federal Courts Section: AALS Federal Courts Section Daniel J. Meltzer Award The AALS Section on Federal Courts is pleased to announce that it is seeking nominations for the new Daniel J. Meltzer Award, which is designed to honor the life and work of the late Professor […]
Two weeks ago, the petitioners filed their brief in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the case next term in which the Supreme Court will reconsider Chevron deference. Several legal scholars have also filed amicus briefs in favor of petitioners or on behalf of neither party. I am not among them. But I was somewhat surprised that both the petitioners and […]
As readers of this blog know well, the major questions doctrine (MQD) has become a staple of contemporary administrative law practice. For the past two Supreme Court terms, the MQD has been invoked to vacate administrative actions canceling student loan debt, imposing mortgage foreclosure moratoria, requiringvaccination against COVID-19, and controlling carbon dioxide pollution from power plants. At the same time, the MQD […]
Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “Separation of Powers by Contract: How Collective Bargaining Reshapes Presidential Power,” by Nicholas Handler, which is forthcoming in the NYU Law Review. Here is the abstract: This Article demonstrates for the first time how civil servants check and restrain presidential power through collective bargaining. The executive branch is […]
Last week was busy at the D.C. Circuit, with opinions on (i) FERC (of course!), (ii) FIFRA, (iii) election law and the FEC, (iv) the EPA, (v) federal land management, (vi) foreign relations and espousal of claims, and (vii) civil procedure and criminal procedure. FERC In Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station v. FERC, […]
This coming Term, the Supreme Court will hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which asks the Court to overrule Chevron deference. Last week, petitioners filed their opening brief on the merits, along with more than a dozen amici filing briefings supporting petitioners (collected here). Today Kent Barnett and I filed our brief supporting neither party, […]
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court will address whether it should replace the Chevron standard of review. I want to pick apart a particular passage of the petitioners’ merits brief: More troublingly, Chevron has seriously distorted how the political branches operate. Thanks to Chevron, Congress does far less than the Framers envisioned and the executive branch does far more, […]
Here is the June 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. For more on why SSRN and this eJournal are such terrific resources for administrative law scholars and practitioners, check out my first post on the subject here. You can check […]
ACUS Assembly Adopts Four New Recommendations The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) convened in its 79th Plenary Session on Thursday, June 15, 2023, at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. A recording of the day’s proceedings is available online via ACUS’s YouTube page. Following a report from ACUS Chair Andrew […]
In Congress’s Anti-Removal Power, Aaron l. Nielson & Christopher J. Walker propose something of a workaround to secure some degree of agency independence from the president in the not entirely unlikely event that the courts rule statutory restrictions on the president’s removal power unconstitutional. They suggest that Congress can, in effect, discourage removal by making it more difficult […]
I have completed the annual update to the list of schools requiring a Legislation & Regulation or Administrative Law course. Links to the pertinent page of the school’s website now appear for every entry. There are a small number of new schools on the list (all appearing in bold), including Mitchell Hamline and Berkeley Law. A […]
From West’s Foundation Press: Teacher’s Manual to Federal Administrative Law: Cases and Materials, 4th Edition Kristin E. Hickman, University of Minnesota Law SchoolRichard J. Pierce, Jr., The George Washington University Law SchoolChristopher J. Walker, University of Michigan Law School Foundation Press is pleased to announce that the Teacher’s Manual to Federal Administrative Law: Cases and Materials, 4th Edition is […]
The D.C. Circuit issued two admin law decisions this past week, both partial defeats for FERC. The most significant case is Advanced Energy United, Inc. v. FERC, No. 22-1018. It involves the Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM), proposed by some of the southeast’s largest utilities and approved by FERC in part by inaction. In non-technical […]
In Biden v. Nebraska, the decision in which the Court invalidated the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program, Justice Barrett wrote a theoretically ambitious concurrence, joined however by no other Justice. The aim of the concurrence was to put the so-called major questions doctrine on a more secure basis by justifying it as a natural inference […]
If the Supreme Court next term overrules Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, its decision will crown a complete paradigm shift in the Supreme Court’s framework for the judicial review of agency interpretations of law. The era of “Chevron deference” will have been displaced by what ought to be called the era of “West Virginia skepticism.” The latter label […]