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Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Delegation Doctrine, Jonathan Adler
The Delegation Doctrine, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
The nondelegation doctrine may remain moribund, but the outlines of a delegation doctrine may be visible in the Court’s recent jurisprudence. Instead of policing the limits on Congress’s power to delegate authority to administrative agencies, the Court has instead been focusing on whether the power administrative agencies seek to exercise has been properly delegated by Congress in the first place. This emerging delegation doctrine may be seen in both the Court’s recent major questions doctrine cases, as well as the Court’s decisions refining and constraining the Chevron doctrine. In both contexts the Court has embraced the principle that agencies may …
Standing Without Injury, Jonathan Adler
Standing Without Injury, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
It is well-established that injury in fact is an essential element of Article III standing, but should it be? Academics have long criticized the Supreme Court’s standing jurisprudence. These criticisms are now being echoed by federal judges. Judge Kevin Newsom, for one, has suggested existing standing jurisprudence has become ungrounded from constitutional text, incoherent, and administrable. He suggests abandoning injury in fact altogether, and recognizing broad congressional power to authorize causes of action to sue in federal court, subject only to those limits imposed by the executive branch’s obligation to “Take Care” that the laws are faithfully executed. In short, …
Professional Speech At Scale, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Sharona Hoffman
Professional Speech At Scale, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Sharona Hoffman
Faculty Publications
Regulatory actions affecting professional speech are facing new challenges from all sides. On one side, the Supreme Court has grown increasingly protective of professionals’ free speech rights, and it has subjected regulations affecting that speech to heightened levels of scrutiny that call into question traditional regulatory practices in both law and medicine. On the other side, technological developments, including the growth of massive digital platforms and the introduction of artificial intelligence programs, have created brand new problems of regulatory scale. Professional speech is now able to reach a wide audience faster than ever before, creating risks that misinformation will cause …
Delegation And Time, Jonathan H. Adler, Christopher J. Walker
Delegation And Time, Jonathan H. Adler, Christopher J. Walker
Faculty Publications
Most concerns about delegation are put in terms of the handover of legislative power to federal agencies and the magnitude of the legislative policy decisions made by such agencies. Likewise, most reform proposals, such as the Congressional Review Act and the proposed REINS Act, address these gap-filling, democratic-deficit concerns. The same is true of the judicially created non-delegation canons, such as the major questions doctrine and other clear-statement rules. This Article addresses a different, under-explored dimension of the delegation problem: the temporal complications of congressional delegation. In other words, broad congressional delegations of authority at one time period become a …
The Limits Of Copyright Office Expertise, Aaron K. Perzanowski
The Limits Of Copyright Office Expertise, Aaron K. Perzanowski
Faculty Publications
The mismatch between the expanding administrative and regulatory obligations of the United States Copyright Office and its limited institutional expertise is an emerging problem for the copyright system. The Office’s chief responsibility—registration and recordation of copyright claims—has taken a back seat in recent years to a more ambitious set of substantive rulemakings and policy recommendations. As the triennial rulemaking under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act highlights, the Office is frequently called upon to answer technological questions far beyond its plausible claims of subject matter expertise. This Article traces the Office’s history, identifies its substantial but discrete areas of expertise, and …
Auer Evasions, Jonathan Adler
Auer Evasions, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
Auer v. Robbins requires federal courts to defer to federal agency interpretations of ambiguous regulations. Auer built upon, and arguably expanded, the Court’s long-standing practice of deferring to agency interpretations of their own regulations born in Bowles v. Seminole Rock. Although initially uncontroversial, the doctrine has come under fire from legal commentators and prominent jurists, including Auer’s author, the late Justice Antonin Scalia. As Justice Scalia came to recognize, Auer deference enables agencies to evade a wide range of legal constraints that are otherwise imposed upon agency behavior, the ability of agencies to take action with the force …
Restoring Chevron's Domain, Jonathan Adler
Restoring Chevron's Domain, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
For some three decades, Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council has stood at the center of administrative law. Today, however, there are doubts about the doctrine’s continued vitality, and perhaps even its ultimate desirability. This brief article, based upon remarks delivered at Missouri Law Review symposium, suggests the scope of Chevron’s domain should be determined by its doctrinal grounding. Specifically, insofar as the Court’s subsequent application and elucidation of Chevron have indicated that the doctrine is predicated on a theory of delegation, courts should only provide such deference when the relevant power has been delegated by Congress. Correspondingly, …
Anti-Disruption Statutory Construction, Jonathan Adler
Anti-Disruption Statutory Construction, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
During his first ten years on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts has adopted a pragmatic approach to statutory interpretation that appears to place a higher priority on avoiding disruptive consequences than on any particular interpretive methodology. Prepared for the symposium, “Ten Years the Chief: Examining a Decade of John Roberts on the Supreme Court,” at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, this brief essay argues that the Chief Justice’s approach to statutory interpretation exhibits a “Burkean minimalism” that seeks to reduce seismic effect of the Court’s decisions. In particular, the Chief Justice is drawn toward statutory interpretations …
Category Errors And Executive Power, Jonathan Adler
Category Errors And Executive Power, Jonathan Adler
Faculty Publications
In the context of implementing the Affordable Care Act and the Clean Air Act, the Obama Administration has asserted not only the authority to determine when, and how stringently, to enforce relevant provisions, but also the authority to waive or delay legal obligations enacted by Congress. These actions have prompted accusations that the Administration is exceeding the proper bounds of executive authority. The ensuing debate – and litigation – over these actions has generated a good deal of confusion about the nature and scope of executive power. Commentators have often misunderstood or mischaracterized the nature of the acts taken and …
Pleading Patterns And The Role Of Litigation As A Driver Of Federal Climate Change Legislation, Juscelino F. Colares, Kosta Ristovski
Pleading Patterns And The Role Of Litigation As A Driver Of Federal Climate Change Legislation, Juscelino F. Colares, Kosta Ristovski
Faculty Publications
Based on a variant of the Elliott-Ackerman-Millian theory that variable, potentially inconsistent and costly litigation outcomes induce industry to seek federal preemptive legislation to reign in such costs, we collect data on climate change-related litigation to determine whether litigation might motivate major greenhouse gas emitters to accept a preemptive, though possibly carbon-restricting, legislative compromise. We conduct a spectral cluster analysis on 178 initial federal and state judicial filings to reveal the most relevant groupings among climate change-related suits and their underlying pleading patterns. Besides exposing the general content and structure of climate change-related filings, this study identifies major specific pleading …
Placing 'Reins' On Regulations: Assessing The Proposed Reins Act, Jonathan H. Adler
Placing 'Reins' On Regulations: Assessing The Proposed Reins Act, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
Over the past several decades, the scope, reach and cost of federal regulations have increased dramatically, prompting bipartisan calls for regulatory reform. One such proposed reform is the Regulations of the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act). This proposal aims to restore political accountability to federal regulatory policy decisions by requiring both Houses of Congress to approve any proposed "major rule." In effect, the REINS Act would limit the delegation of regulatory authority to federal agencies, and restore legislative control and accountability to Congress. This article seeks to assess the REINS Act and its likely effects on regulatory …
City Of Arlington V. Fcc: Questioning Agency Authority To Determine The Scope Of Its Own Authority, Jonathan H. Adler
City Of Arlington V. Fcc: Questioning Agency Authority To Determine The Scope Of Its Own Authority, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
In City of Arlington v. FCC the Supreme Court will consider whether courts should defer to an agency’s determination of its own jurisdiction. Although the need for courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutory provisions under Chevron v. NRDC is well-established, the Supreme Court has never decided whether so-called Chevron deference should apply to statutory provisions delineating the scope of agency jurisdiction. There are several reasons courts should not confer Chevron deference to agency interpretations of statutes that define or limit an agency’s jurisdiction. First, the conferral of Chevron deference is premised upon the existence of agency jurisdiction. …
Would The Reins Act Rein In Federal Regulation?, Jonathan H. Adler
Would The Reins Act Rein In Federal Regulation?, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
Federal regulation reaches nearly all aspects of modern life and is pervasive in the modern economy. Much of this regulation may be necessary or advisable, but there is understandable concern that regulatory agencies act outside the authority delegated to them by Congress. The proposed Regulations of the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act is intended to remedy this by requiring that major regulations receive the approval of Congress through an expedited process. Critics of the REINS Act claim it would severely curtain important regulatory efforts and allow for all sorts of congressional gamesmanship. In fact, the REINS Act would …
Heat Expands All Things: The Proliferation Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation Under The Obama Administration, Jonathan H. Adler
Heat Expands All Things: The Proliferation Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation Under The Obama Administration, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
The Obama Administration has been moving aggressively to control greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act and other pre-existing statutory authority. Much of this new regulation was facilitated – if not mandated – by the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. These regulatory initiatives mark a dramatic expansion of federal environmental controls on private economic activity. These efforts are unwise. Regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, in particular, will impose substantial regulatory costs for minimal environmental gain. Extensive GHG regulation will not produce much actual climate change mitigation. Mitigating the threat of anthropogenic climate change requires …
The Rest Is Silence: Chevron Deference, Agency Jurisdiction And Statutory Silences, Jonathan H. Adler
The Rest Is Silence: Chevron Deference, Agency Jurisdiction And Statutory Silences, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
Should agencies receive Chevron deference when interpreting the reach of their own jurisdiction? This article argues that, in general, they should not. We begin by identifying and detailing the various different types of jurisdictional questions that may arise in statutory interpretation. The article then surveys how the Supreme Court and lower federal courts have analyzed these different aspects of the jurisdiction problem, with a particular attention to statutory silences. The Court's Chevron jurisprudence strongly suggest that deference to agency determinations of their own jurisdiction should be disfavored, particularly where a statute is silent (and not merely ambiguous) about the existence …
Hothouse Flowers: The Vices And Virtues Of Climate Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler
Hothouse Flowers: The Vices And Virtues Of Climate Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
Federal law preempts state regulation of motor vehicle emissions. California alone is allowed to seek a waiver of such preemption, and unsuccessfully sought such a waiver for the state's regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The debate and pending litigation over California's effort to obtain a waiver of preemption has focused attention on the state role in climate change policy. This paper explores the role of state governments in developing climate change policy, with a particular focus on how federalism principles and practice should inform judgments about the division of authority between the state and federal governments. As …
Massachusetts V. Epa Heats Up Climate Policy No Less Than Administrative Law: A Comment On Professors Watts And Wildermuth, Jonathan H. Adler
Massachusetts V. Epa Heats Up Climate Policy No Less Than Administrative Law: A Comment On Professors Watts And Wildermuth, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
In their essay Breaking New Ground on Issues Other than Global Warming, Professors Kathryn A. Watts and Amy J. Wildermuth have presented a thoughtful preliminary analysis of the Supreme Court's handiwork in Massachusetts v. EPA. They are correct that the decision potentially paves new ground in administrative law, particularly with regard to state standing. The Court's approach to review of agency decisions to decline rulemaking petitions is also potentially significant, but perhaps less ground-breaking than they suggest. In the context of climate change policy their assessment of the Court's decision is too modest, however, for Massachusetts virtually ensures federal regulation …
The Ducks Stop Here? The Environmental Challenge To Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler
The Ducks Stop Here? The Environmental Challenge To Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
PIn Solid Waste Association of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("SWANCC"), the Supreme Court considered whether federal regulatory authority reaches isolated wetlands and ponds due to the potential presence of migratory birds. In rejecting such an expansive view of federal authority, the Court's majority underlined its devotion to the federalism principles enunciated in Lopez and other recent cases. The federalist majority further reiterated its support for a canon of statutory construction which holds that federal statutes will not be interpreted to intrude into state matters, such as local land-use control, absent a clear statement by Congress. …
Prometheus Radio Project V. Fcc: The Persistence Of Scarcity, Aaron K. Perzanowski
Prometheus Radio Project V. Fcc: The Persistence Of Scarcity, Aaron K. Perzanowski
Faculty Publications
Part I traces the history of broadcast regulation, emphasizing the development of the scarcity doctrine and the subsequent deregulatory trend. Part II examines the FCC's 2003 rule changes and the Third Circuit's analysis of those modifications in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. Part III analyzes the assumptions underlying the FCC's proffered explanation for its rule changes, ultimately concluding that they lack justification, and offers suggestions for responsible ownership deregulation. Part IV calls on Congress to reassert itself as the final arbiter of media policy.
The Fable Of Federal Regulation: Reconsidering The Federal Role In Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler
The Fable Of Federal Regulation: Reconsidering The Federal Role In Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
This essay posits that many federal environmental laws were adopted for the wrong rea- sons. Further, it suggests that environmental protections could be improved if more policy decisions were left in the hands of state and local governments.