Last week I blogged about the first paper from Andrew Hammond and my Kisor dataset. This week Andrew and I have posted to SSRN a draft of a shorter, more theoretical essay, entitled The End of Administrative Pragmatism?, which explores how Justice Kagan’s administrative law jurisprudence arguably represents the best of administrative pragmatism (as Jeff […]
Here is the June 2025 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. Lots of great new administrative law scholarship to read this summer! I see that the Virginia Law Review is publishing two of the papers from this SSRN reading […]
The Roberts Court has sometimes hinted at supporting a strong version of the “unitary executive branch” theory—one in which Presidents can personally control all executive functions. The Court’s hints, in turn, have emboldened the Trump Administration to take broad views of presidential power. This term, however, the Court poured cold water on that view. Judging […]
For decades, federal prosecutors have relied on elastic statutes to pursue novel schemes that Congress never spelled out. Proponents of this elasticity contend that policy-infused interpretations honor Congress’s larger purpose of policing sophisticated schemes, while textualists warn that such broad statutes erode fair notice, invite arbitrary enforcement, and transfer the power to define crime from […]
From the Yale Law Journal: The Yale Law Journal’s Ninth Annual Student Essay Competition challenges the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems. This year’s topic is “Emerging Issues in the Executive Power.” The Competition is open to current law students and recent law-school graduates nationwide. Up to three winners […]
The D.C. Circuit issued seven opinions last week, but most of them were not administrative law cases. They addressed international arbitration (disclosure: I represented amici in support of appellees in that case); constitutional claims related to reincarceration following a mistaken release; fraud claims against federal employees; the False Claims Act; and whistleblower awards for reports […]
From Professor Tim Lytton: Each May I organize a book manuscript workshop in the areas of torts, administrative law, or legal history. Georgia State University provides funding to invite 10-15 leading scholars from around the country for a one-day in-person workshop. Previous manuscripts include: I am currently seeking a suitable manuscript for May 2026. Authors […]
Several years ago, Andrew Hammond and I set out to read and code every lower-court decision that invoked Kisor v. Wilkie when applying Auer deference to agencies’ interpretations of their own regulations. We read around 1,000 cases, all that were issued in the first five years after Kisor was decided (2019-2024). This project looked promising […]
Columbia University recently reached a $221 million settlement with the Trump Administration over charges of antisemitism and other civil rights violations. As critics have noted, the administration engineered this deal by ignoring procedural and substantive limitations on civil rights enforcement: rather than follow required procedures, it simply terminated grants and contracts to create pressure for […]
The D.C. Circuit prides itself on making its decisions public in a timely fashion. An internal rule helps make that happen. A judge who has failed to circulate to the panel more than two of his assigned opinions by August 15 will not be allowed to hear arguments until he has. At first glance, one […]
Kristin, Dick, and I have just published the Summer 2025 Update to our federal administrative law casebook. From the introduction: Administrative law is a dynamic field, and there are always interesting new cases being decided and new debates unfolding. The past two years have seen some big administrative law cases from the Supreme Court. In […]
Access to government records is important for the general public in terms of governmental accountability and democratic governance, but may also be critical to assertion of a valid claim or defense in administrative proceedings or in assessing a potential legal challenge on behalf of an individual.[1] The Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, generally mandates […]
Today’s Ad Law Reading Room brings two entries. The first is “Presidential Brokering in the Regulatory State,” forthcoming in the George Washington Law Review, by Jennifer Nou. The second is “The Chadha Presidency,” by Josh Chafetz. Here is Nou’s abstract: Presidents seeking to make regulatory policy face formidable hurdles, most recently heightened litigation risk, reduced […]
Last week over at Jotwell, I reviewed Kevin Stack’s terrific new article The Internal Law of Democracy, which was recently published in the Vanderbilt Law Review. Here’s a snippet of that review: In Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 524 (1978), the Supreme Court famously announced that “[a]gencies are free to grant […]
The Senate just confirmed Elliot Gaiser as the new head of the Office of Legal Counsel, one of the most important positions within the U.S. Department of Justice with significant implications for administrative law. He was previously Solicitor General of Ohio. When I was Solicitor General of Texas,* I had the good fortune to work […]