Sometimes a student question leads to an interesting discovery. In my Administrative Law class, I was covering the issue of appointment of officers and discussing the important Appointments Clause cases of Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988) (appointment of the independent counsel (“IC)” under the Ethics in Government Act) and Lucia v. SEC, 138 […]
2019 Administrative Law Conference November 14-15, 2019 | Walter E. Washington Convention Center | Washington, DC We are excited to announce that the brochure for the 2019 Administrative Law Conference is now available!This year’s conference features 20 panels with 12.5 Hours CLE, including 1.5 hours of Ethics Credit, to be requested. View the 2019 Administrative […]
A tide of skepticism of the administrative state has been rising among members of the judiciary and the academy—a trend only encouraged by the Trump administration’s resistance to the modern federal bureaucracy. In the last two Supreme Court Terms, this skeptical upswell has translated into a number of remarkable cases challenging key tenets of administrative […]
2019 Administrative Law Conference November 14-15 | Washington Convention Center | Washington, DC We are excited to announce that the 2019 Administrative Law Conference is now open for registration! This year’s conference features 20 panels providing in-depth analysis of current administrative law and practice, with insights gleaned from faculty who are leaders in government, academia […]
The D.C. Circuit issued an opinion this week about legislative prayer. This prompts a question: Should I blog about it? I think the opinion is well written. I also think the subject is important. Yet the opinion hardly seems related to administrative law — and this blog is hosted by the Yale Journal on Regulation […]
Here are the details: 2018 Administrative Law Conference November 1-2, 2018 | Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC The final agenda for the 2018 Administrative Law Conference is coming soon. Take advantage of our Section Member and Group Discount rates listed below! Topics include the following: Developments in Administrative Law (Parts I & II) Lucia’s Aftermath: […]
I started writing D.C. Circuit Review–Reviewed in August of 2015. Each August since 2015, I have asked myself whether it is worthwhile to keep going for another year. So far, my answer has always been, “Sure, why not?” But this year I’m wavering. There are downsides to these posts; they take a lot of time, […]
Posts to this blog have justifiably focused on Lucia v. SEC, 138 S.Ct. 2044 (June 21, 2018), the recent Executive Order entitled “Excepting Administrative Law Judges from the Competitive Service,” and the resultant implications for the administrative judiciary’s independence. But in the meantime, President Trump has issued three executive orders addressing job protections and related […]
Yesterday, President Trump issued an Executive Order exempting administrative law judges from the competitive selection process and stripping them of the removal protections provided by civil service regulations. Under the order, agency heads have much broader discretion over the hiring and firing of ALJs. The changes to the hiring process are unsurprising. This term, in […]
As Andy Hessick has blogged here, President Trump yesterday issued an executive order (EO) that alters how federal administrative law judges (ALJs) are appointed. Although I am not an expert on the interworking of the federal civil service, my initial impression is that the altered hiring model has benefits, but also potentially serious drawbacks. Under […]
If you’re looking for a little light poolside reading, check out the three new recommendations and other actions taken by ACUS at its 69th Plenary session last month. The recommendations address the Paperwork Reduction Act, severability in judicial review of agency rulemaking, and electronic case management in adjudication. In addition to adopting these recommendations, the Assembly recommitted […]
The President will soon nominate a replacement for Justice Kennedy. Different folks have their favorites. That’s understandable — there are many talented folks in the mix.* What is less understandable are some of the attacks made on potential nominees by supporters of other nominees. To be sure, I have no objection to fair criticism; this […]
The headline administrative law opinion coming out of the Supreme Court yesterday was no doubt Justice Kagan’s opinion for the Court in Lucia v. SEC, which held that administrative law judges at the SEC are (at least inferior) officers under the Appointments Clause and thus unconstitutionally appointed by agency officials who are not the head of […]
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled in Lucia v. SEC, evaluating whether the Securities and Exchange Commission had used improper methods to hire its administrative law judges. A fairly lopsided 7-2 margin of justices concluded that it had. Standing alone, Justice Stephen Breyer found that the SEC had committed a statutory violation by improperly delegating appointments […]
The Supreme Court tossed a proverbial squib into the administrative law world this morning, and the takes, hot and otherwise, are sparking everywhere. It handed down three decisions with implications for administrative law: Lucia v. SEC, Pereira v. Sessions, and Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. United States. Lucia, which already had its own symposium on this […]