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After The Override: An Empirical Analysis Of Shadow Precedent, Brian Broughman, Deborah A. Widiss
After The Override: An Empirical Analysis Of Shadow Precedent, Brian Broughman, Deborah A. Widiss
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Congressional overrides of prior judicial interpretations of statutory language are typically defined as equivalent to judicial overrulings, and they are presumed to play a central role in maintaining legislative supremacy. Our study is the first to empirically test these assumptions. Using a differences-in-differences research design, we find that citation levels decrease far less after legislative overrides than after judicial overrulings. This pattern holds true even when controlling for depth of the superseding event or considering only the specific proposition that was superseded. Moreover, contrary to what one might expect, citation levels decrease more quickly after restorative overrides—-in which Congress repudiates …
Agency Statutory Interpretation And Policymaking Form, Kevin M. Stack
Agency Statutory Interpretation And Policymaking Form, Kevin M. Stack
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In this short symposium contribution, I take up this invitation to examine the relevance of the agency's policymaking form to its approach to statutory interpretation. The core point I wish to advance is a relatively basic one--namely, that an agency's approach to statutory interpretation is in part a function of the policymaking form through which it acts. My strategy is to examine two of the most important policymaking forms--notice-and-comment rulemaking and formal adjudication--and to argue that the considerations that distinguish agency and judicial interpretation have a markedly different place in these two agency policymaking forms. For purposes of exposition, I …