Law Commons^™

Revisiting The Impact Of Judicial Review On Agency Rulemakings: An Empirical Investigation, Wendy Wagner

William & Mary Law Review

It is generally believed that the judicial review of agency rulemakings helps protect the public interest against industry capture. Yet very little empirical research has been done to assess the accuracy of this conventional wisdom. This Study examines the entire set of air toxic emission regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with particular attention to those rules appealed to judgment in the court of appeals, and discovers significant disconnects between popular understanding of judicial review and rulemaking reality. Of these air toxic rules (N=90), the courts were summoned to review only a small fraction (8%), despite evidence that …