Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Constitutional Law (13)
- Courts (11)
- Legislation (11)
- President/Executive Department (10)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (10)
-
- Environmental Law (8)
- Environmental Policy (7)
- Environmental Sciences (7)
- Intellectual Property Law (7)
- Land Use Law (7)
- Natural Resources Law (7)
- Natural Resources Management and Policy (7)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (7)
- Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration (7)
- State and Local Government Law (7)
- Taxation-Federal (7)
- Animal Law (6)
- Biodiversity (6)
- Climate (6)
- Energy Policy (6)
- Energy and Utilities Law (6)
- Jurisdiction (6)
- Life Sciences (6)
- Natural Resources and Conservation (6)
- Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (6)
- Oil, Gas, and Energy (6)
- Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law (6)
- Supreme Court of the United States (6)
- Institution
-
- University of Colorado Law School (10)
- University of Michigan Law School (8)
- University of New Hampshire (6)
- University of Georgia School of Law (5)
- University of Kentucky (5)
-
- Washington University in St. Louis (5)
- Florida State University College of Law (4)
- William & Mary Law School (4)
- Columbia Law School (3)
- Notre Dame Law School (3)
- Cornell University Law School (2)
- Maurer School of Law: Indiana University (2)
- University of Cincinnati College of Law (2)
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (2)
- American University Washington College of Law (1)
- Barry University School of Law (1)
- Boston University School of Law (1)
- Florida A&M University College of Law (1)
- Georgetown University Law Center (1)
- Louisiana State University Law Center (1)
- University of Washington School of Law (1)
- Vanderbilt University Law School (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Articles (7)
- Law Faculty Scholarship (6)
- Faculty Scholarship (5)
- Law Faculty Scholarly Articles (5)
- Scholarly Works (5)
-
- Scholarship@WashULaw (5)
- Faculty Publications (4)
- Journal Articles (4)
- Scholarly Publications (4)
- The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8) (4)
- Publications (3)
- All Faculty Scholarship (2)
- Articles by Maurer Faculty (2)
- Cornell Law Faculty Publications (2)
- Faculty Articles and Other Publications (2)
- Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals (1)
- Best Management Practices and Adaptive Management in Oil and Gas Development (May 12-13) (1)
- External Development Affecting the National Parks: Preserving "The Best Idea We Ever Had" (September 14-16) (1)
- Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works (1)
- Journal Publications (1)
- Law & Economics Working Papers (1)
- Librarians' Articles (1)
- The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5) (1)
- Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 69
Full-Text Articles in Administrative Law
Interpreting The Administrative Procedure Act: A Literature Review, Christopher J. Walker, Scott Macguidwin
Interpreting The Administrative Procedure Act: A Literature Review, Christopher J. Walker, Scott Macguidwin
Law & Economics Working Papers
The modern administrative state has changed substantially since Congress enacted the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in 1946. Yet Congress has done little to modernize the APA in those intervening seventy-seven years. That does not mean the APA has remained unchanged. Federal courts have substantially refashioned the APA’s requirements for administrative procedure and judicial review of agency action. Perhaps unsurprisingly, calls to return to either the statutory text or the original meaning (or both) have intensified in recent years. “APA originalism” projects abound.
As part of the Notre Dame Law Review’s Symposium on the History of the Ad- ministrative Procedure Act …
Vacatur, Nationwide Injunctions, And The Evolving Apa, Ronald M. Levin
Vacatur, Nationwide Injunctions, And The Evolving Apa, Ronald M. Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
The courts’ growing use of universal or nationwide injunctions to invalidate agency rules that they find to be unlawful has given rise to concern that such injunctions circumvent dialogue among the circuits, promote forum-shopping, and leave too much power in the hands of individual judges. Some scholars, joined by the Department of Justice, have argued that such judicial decisions should be limited through restrictive interpretations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
This article takes issue with these authorities. It argues that the courts’ use of the APA to vacate a rule as a whole—as opposed to merely enjoining application of …
Power Corrupts, Emily Bremer
Power Corrupts, Emily Bremer
Journal Articles
Administrative law today neglects administration, focusing instead on power and the institutions that wield it, particularly the Supreme Court, the president, and Congress. Tracing the field’s reorientation—from the New Deal–era cases that revealed the thin political will behind the Administrative Procedure Act to the emergence of the Chevron doctrine—this paper argues that administrative law’s obsession with power corrupts the field.
Loper Bright And The Future Of Chevron Deference, Jack M. Beermann
Loper Bright And The Future Of Chevron Deference, Jack M. Beermann
Faculty Scholarship
The question presented in Loper Bright Industries v. Raimondo1 is “[w]hether the Court should overrule Chevron or at least clarify that statutory silence concerning controversial powers expressly but narrowly granted elsewhere in the statute does not constitute an ambiguity requiring deference to the agency.” The Court denied certiorari on another question focused on the merits of the case,2 indicating that at least four of the Justices are anxious to revisit or at least clarify Chevron. It’s about time, although it’s far from certain that the Court will actually follow through with the promise the certiorari grant indicates.3 …
Interpreting The Administrative Procedure Act: A Literature Review, Christopher J. Walker
Interpreting The Administrative Procedure Act: A Literature Review, Christopher J. Walker
Articles
The modern administrative state has changed substantially since Congress enacted the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in 1946. Yet Congress has done little to modernize the APA in those intervening seventy-seven years. That does not mean the APA has remained unchanged. Federal courts have substantially refashioned the APA’s requirements for administrative procedure and judicial review of agency action. Perhaps unsurprisingly, calls to return to either the statutory text or the original meaning (or both) have intensified in recent years. “APA originalism” projects abound.
As part of the Notre Dame Law Review’s Symposium on the History of the Administrative Procedure Act and …
The Importance Of Looking Under The 'Administrative Hood': A Case Study Of The National Waters Protection Rule, Nicholas S. Bryner, Victor Byers Flatt
The Importance Of Looking Under The 'Administrative Hood': A Case Study Of The National Waters Protection Rule, Nicholas S. Bryner, Victor Byers Flatt
Journal Articles
In an era of legislative gridlock, policy by administrative action has expanded, with major swings occurring when the political party of the presidency changes. These policy disputes have spilled into the third branch with a concomitant increase in legal challenges seeking judicial review of such actions. At the same time, both Republican and Democratic Administrations have made cost-benefit analysis the currency of federal rulemaking in the executive branch.
The combination of the expansion of cost-benefit analysis and the increased litigation over rulemaking has increased the importance of economic and scientific justifications in both the promulgation and revision of administrative actions. …
The Evolving Apa And The Originalist Challenge, Ronald M. Levin
The Evolving Apa And The Originalist Challenge, Ronald M. Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
This article, written for a symposium marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), discusses the manifold ways in which courts have creatively interpreted the APA’s provisions on rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review. Many of these interpretations seem to be barely, if at all, consistent with the intentions of the Act’s drafters and with standard principles of statutory construction. They can, however, be defended as pragmatic judicial efforts to keep up with the evolving needs of the regulatory state, especially in light of Congress’s persistent failure to take charge of updating the Act on its own. At this …
Introduction To The Bremer-Kovacs Collection: Historic Documents Related To The Administrative Procedure Act Of 1946 (Heinonline 2021), Emily S. Bremer, Kathryn E. Kovacs
Introduction To The Bremer-Kovacs Collection: Historic Documents Related To The Administrative Procedure Act Of 1946 (Heinonline 2021), Emily S. Bremer, Kathryn E. Kovacs
Journal Articles
Few statutes have a legislative history as rich, varied, and sprawling as the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA). In recent years, courts and scholars have shown increased interest in understanding this history. This is no mean feat. The APA’s history spans nearly two decades, and it includes numerous failed bills, a presidential veto, and a full panoply of congressional documents. In addition, much of the most crucial documentation underlying the APA was produced outside of Congress—by the executive branch—and even outside of government—by the American Bar Association. Identifying and locating all the relevant documents is difficult. Understanding each piece …
Racial Justice And Administrative Procedure, Sophia Z. Lee
Racial Justice And Administrative Procedure, Sophia Z. Lee
All Faculty Scholarship
This article argues that commemorating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) should involve accounting for the role it has played in both advancing and thwarting racial justice, as well as the role racial justice advocates have played in shaping its interpretation. The APA was not designed to advance racial justice; indeed, its provisions insulated some of the mid-twentieth century's most racially pernicious policies from challenge. Yet racial justice advocates have long understood that administrative agencies could be a necessary or even uniquely receptive target for their efforts and the APA shaped those calculations. Along the way, racial justice advocates left their …
Department Of Homeland Security V. Regents Of The University Of California And Its Implications, Brian Wolfman
Department Of Homeland Security V. Regents Of The University Of California And Its Implications, Brian Wolfman
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The Trump Administration's effort to get rid of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, failed before the Supreme Court in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, 140 S. Ct. 1891, 1896 (2020). In this essay -- based on a presentation given to an American Bar Association section in September 2020 -- I review DACA, the Supreme Court's decision, and its potential legal implications.
The failure of the Trump Administration to eliminate DACA may have had significant political consequences, and it surely had immediate and momentous consequences for many of DACA’s hundreds of thousands …
The Apa And The Assault On Deference, Ronald Levin
The Apa And The Assault On Deference, Ronald Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
Recently, in Kisor v. Wilkie, a concurring opinion by Justice Gorsuch argued at length that § 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act prohibits judicial deference to administrative interpretations of law. That section states that “the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law.” This issue remained unresolved in Kisor, but the Supreme Court may well return to it soon as a potential argument against the validity of Chevron deference. Although a substantial academic literature has supported Gorsuch’s position on the APA question, this article disagrees with it. It argues that the text of § 706, surrounding statutory provisions, the …
The D.C. Circuit Undermines Direct Final Rulemaking, Ronald Levin
The D.C. Circuit Undermines Direct Final Rulemaking, Ronald Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
Twenty-five years ago, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) brought the technique of “direct final rulemaking” to the attention of the administrative law community. Since that time, agencies have used the technique thousands of times to adopt noncontroversial regulations on an expedited basis. But its legality depends on a creative reading of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). A recent D.C. Circuit case, applying the APA in a manner that overlooked the distinctive features of this device, has exposed this vulnerability and may well have seriously undermined the viability of the practice.
This column criticizes a case that came …
The Regulatory Accountability Act And The Future Of Apa Revision, Ronald M. Levin
The Regulatory Accountability Act And The Future Of Apa Revision, Ronald M. Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
This article seeks to take stock of the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), a set of proposals to amend the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). House and Senate versions of the proposed Act have been pending in Congress since 2011, although the impending advent of Democratic control of the House may halt further progress on the bills in their present form. Some provisions in the RAA are desirable or at least supportable, because they would codify elements of current practice or make minor repairs to the APA. But other aspects of the bill are controversial and troubling. Among them are sections that …
Tax As Part Of A Broken Budget: Good Taxes Are Good Cause Enough, Stephanie Mcmahon
Tax As Part Of A Broken Budget: Good Taxes Are Good Cause Enough, Stephanie Mcmahon
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
The federal budget is a myth. Despite being a myth, Congress uses the budget to limit its choices by linking its revenue-raising and spending powers under a federal debt ceiling. Through its self-imposed limits, Congress puts tremendous pressure on how it calculates its budget, and that calculation generally assumes any tax provisions will raise revenue when the law becomes effective. However, many tax provisions require additional direction to ensure they operate as the budgetary process expects. That task falls to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a bureau of the Department. Consequently, limiting the production of …
Fail To Comment At Your Own Risk: Does Issue Exhaustion Have A Place In Judicial Review Of Rules, Jeffrey Lubbers
Fail To Comment At Your Own Risk: Does Issue Exhaustion Have A Place In Judicial Review Of Rules, Jeffrey Lubbers
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Lubbers discusses whether issue exhaustion have a place in judicial review of rules.
Chevron Step Two's Domain, Kent H. Barnett, Christopher J. Walker
Chevron Step Two's Domain, Kent H. Barnett, Christopher J. Walker
Scholarly Works
An increasing number of judges, policymakers, and scholars have advocated eliminating or narrowing Chevron deference—a two-step inquiry under which courts defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes the agencies administer. Much of the debate centers on either Chevron’s domain (i.e., when Chevron should apply at all) or how courts ascertain statutory ambiguity at Chevron’s first step. Largely lost in this debate on constraining agency discretion is the role of Chevron’s second step: whether the agency’s resolution of a statutory ambiguity is reasonable. Drawing on the most comprehensive study of Chevron in the circuit courts, this Essay explores how …
Designing The Decider, Emily S. Bremer
Designing The Decider, Emily S. Bremer
Journal Articles
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) contains several provisions designed to ensure that presiding officials in so-called formal adjudications are able to make fair, well-informed, independent decisions. But these provisions do not apply to the vast majority of federal adjudicatory hearings. In this world of adjudication outside the APA, agencies enjoy broad procedural discretion, including substantial freedom to “design the decider.” This Article defines the scope of this discretion and explores how various agencies have exercised it. The discussion is enriched by examples drawn from an expansive new database of federal adjudicatory procedures. The Article argues that, although agency discretion to …
Remedial Restraint In Administrative Law, Nicholas Bagley
Remedial Restraint In Administrative Law, Nicholas Bagley
Articles
When a court determines that an agency action violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the conventional remedy is to invalidate the action and remand to the agency. Only rarely do the courts entertain the possibility of holding agency errors harmless. The courts’ strict approach to error holds some appeal: Better a hard rule that encourages procedural fastidiousness than a remedial standard that might tempt agencies to cut corners. But the benefits of this rule-bound approach are more elusive, and the costs much larger, than is commonly assumed. Across a wide range of cases, the reflexive invalidation of agency action appears wildly …
Pre-Enforcement Litigation Needed For Taxing Procedures, Stephanie Mcmahon
Pre-Enforcement Litigation Needed For Taxing Procedures, Stephanie Mcmahon
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
Courts have opened tax guidance to procedural attack. Consequently, taxpayers who are found to owe tax may challenge the validity of the guidance implementing the tax if the procedure used by the Treasury Department in adopting the guidance failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, in particular, with notice-and-comment. This increased willingness to consider tax guidance's procedural defects offers little to most taxpayers unless they are also given a better means to raise procedural challenges. Under current law and in most circumstances, generally, taxpayers can bring a challenge only after they have been found to owe taxes in an …
Against Administrative Judges, Kent H. Barnett
Against Administrative Judges, Kent H. Barnett
Scholarly Works
The single largest cadre of federal adjudicators goes largely ignored by scholars, policymakers, courts, and even litigating parties. These Administrative Judges or “AJs,” often confused with well-known federal Administrative Law Judges or “ALJs,” operate by the thousands in numerous federal agencies. Yet unlike ALJs, the significantly more numerous AJs preside over less formal hearings and have no significant statutory protections to preserve their impartiality. The national press has recently called attention to the alleged unfairness of certain ALJ proceedings, and regulated parties have successfully enjoined agencies’ use of ALJs. While fixes are necessary for ALJ adjudication, any solution that ignores …
Chapter 11 Shapeshifters, Lindsey Simon
Chapter 11 Shapeshifters, Lindsey Simon
Scholarly Works
Logic and equity would seem to demand that when administrative agencies are creditors to a bankrupt debtor, they should have the same status as other creditors. But a creditor agency retains its regulatory authority over the debtor, permitting it to continue with agency business such as conducting enforcement proceedings and awarding licenses. As a result, though bankruptcy law and policy both strongly support equal distribution of the estate, administrative agencies have been able to circumvent these goals through the use of “shapeshifting” behaviors. This Article evaluates two dangerous shapeshifting scenarios:
(1) where the agency avoids the limitations of creditor status …
Litigation: Time To Revisit Chevron Deference?, Jack M. Beerman, Charles J. Cooper, Thomas W. Merrill, Amy J. Wildermuth, Don R. Willett
Litigation: Time To Revisit Chevron Deference?, Jack M. Beerman, Charles J. Cooper, Thomas W. Merrill, Amy J. Wildermuth, Don R. Willett
Faculty Scholarship
This panel discussion took place on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., prior to the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Scalia's impact on the development of administrative law in the United States is unparalleled.
The Nlrb, The Courts, The Administrative Procedures Act, And Chevron: Now And Then, Theodore J. St. Antoine
The Nlrb, The Courts, The Administrative Procedures Act, And Chevron: Now And Then, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
Decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), like those of other administrative agencies, are subject to review by the federal judiciary. Standards of review have evolved over time. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 provides that administrative decisions must be in accord with law and required procedure, not arbitrary or capricious, not contrary to constitutional rights, within an agency's statutory jurisdiction, and supported by substantial evidence. In practice, more attention is paid to two Supreme Court decisions, Skidmore (1944) and Chevron (1984). For many years Chevron seemed the definitive test. A court must follow a clear intent of Congress, …
Codifying Chevmore, Kent H. Barnett
Codifying Chevmore, Kent H. Barnett
Scholarly Works
This Article considers the significance and promise of Congress’s unprecedented codification of the well-known Chevron and Skidmore judicial-deference doctrines (to which I refer collectively as “Chevmore”). Congress did so in the Dodd-Frank Act by instructing courts to apply the Skidmore deference factors when reviewing certain agency-preemption decisions and by referring to Chevron throughout.
This codification is meaningful because it informs the delegation theory that undergirds Chevmore (i.e., that Congress intends to delegate interpretive primacy over statutory interpretation to agencies under Chevron or courts under Skidmore). Scholars and at least three Supreme Court Justices have decried the judicial inquiry into congressional …
Means And Ends In City Of Arlington V. Fcc: Ignoring The Lawyer's Craft To Reshape The Scope Of Chevron Deference, Michael P. Healy
Means And Ends In City Of Arlington V. Fcc: Ignoring The Lawyer's Craft To Reshape The Scope Of Chevron Deference, Michael P. Healy
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In last year's term, the United States Supreme Court considered the question of the scope of Chevron deference in City of Arlington v. FCC. This article discusses how the decision is an example of the work of an activist Court. The case should have been resolved by a straightforward determination under the analysis of United States v. Mead that Chevron deference simply did not apply to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) legal determination. The Court ignored this restrained approach to the case and instead addressed the question the Justices desired to decide: the reach of Chevron deference. The article …
The Rise And Fall Of Chevron In Tax: From The Early Days To King And Beyond, Steve R. Johnson
The Rise And Fall Of Chevron In Tax: From The Early Days To King And Beyond, Steve R. Johnson
Scholarly Publications
No abstract provided.
The Past, Present And Future Of Auer Deference: Mead, Form And Function In Judicial Review Of Agency Interpretations Of Regulations, Michael P. Healy
The Past, Present And Future Of Auer Deference: Mead, Form And Function In Judicial Review Of Agency Interpretations Of Regulations, Michael P. Healy
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The law of judicial review of agency legal interpretations has undergone an important reshaping as a consequence of the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Mead Corp. That decision and the important follow-on decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Ass 'n v. Brand X Internet Services have changed the understanding of the Court's landmark 1984 decision in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. Chevron defined a new era of judicial deference to an agency's interpretation of an ambiguous statute, but the Chevron era has itself been transformed.
These legal developments had seemed to have little consequential …
The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley
The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley
Articles
The presumption in favor of judicial review of agency action is a cornerstone of administrative law, accepted by courts and commentators alike as both legally appropriate and obviously desirable. Yet the presumption is puzzling. As with any canon of statutory construction that serves a substantive end, it should find a source in history, positive law, the Constitution, or sound policy considerations. None of these, however, offers a plausible justification for the presumption. As for history, the sort of judicial review that the presumption favors - appellate-style arbitrariness review - was not only unheard of prior to the twentieth century, but …
The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley
The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley
Articles
The presumption in favor of judicial review of agency action is a cornerstone of administrative law, accepted by courts and commentators alike as both legally appropriate and obviously desirable. Yet the presumption is puzzling. As with any canon of statutory construction that serves a substantive end, it should find a source in history, positive law, the Constitution, or sound policy considerations. None of these, however, offers a plausible justification for the presumption. As for history, the sort of judicial review that the presumption favors - appellate-style arbitrariness review - was not only unheard of prior to the twentieth century, but …
Designing Administrative Law For Adaptive Management, J.B. Ruhl, Robin Craig
Designing Administrative Law For Adaptive Management, J.B. Ruhl, Robin Craig
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Administrative law needs to adapt to adaptive management. Adaptive management is a structured decision-making method the core of which is a multi-step iterative process for adjusting management measures to changing circumstances or new information about the effectiveness of prior measures or the system being managed. It has been identified as a necessary or best practices component of regulation in a broad range of fields, including drug and medical device warnings, financial system regulation, social welfare programs, and natural resources management. Nevertheless, many of the agency decisions advancing these policies remain subject to the requirements of either the federal Administrative Procedure …