Law Commons^™

Privatization And The Freedom Of Information Act: An Analysis Of Public Access To Private Entities Under Federal Law, Craig D. Feiser

Federal Communications Law Journal

Congress drafted the Freedom of Information Act to ensure that the public would always be able to keep track of the events happening behind governmental agency doors. In an age of privatization of governmental services in the name of efficiency, the Act needs to be adapted to ensure that its original purpose remains sound. Thus far, courts have not kept pace with this purpose by interpreting agency and agency record under the Act too narrowly. This may very well result in government secrecy as services are farmed out to entities not covered under the Act. This Article analyzes the various …

Monitoring Governmental Disposition Of Assets: Fashioning Regulatory Substitutes For Market Controls, Harold J. Krent, Nicholas S. Zeppos

Vanderbilt Law Review

Each year, the government sells and leases public assets worth billions of dollars. FCC auctions to allocate rights to electromagnetic spectrum generated over twenty billion dollars within a three-year period, and proceeds from mineral leases, timber sales, and disposition of real estate from defaulting thrifts have surpassed several billion dollars annually.

From the taxpayer's perspective, however, government sales and leases have been deplorable. The government has donated valuable resources to preferred claimants, allocated scarce broadcast and oil rights resources by lottery, and sold both public land and mineral rights to private parties at a fraction of the market price. Although …

Alj Final Orders On Appeal: Balancing Independence With Accountability, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This essay addresses how ALJ final order authority in many state systems of administrative governance (among them Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and South Carolina) poses a tension between independence and accountability. It is argued that political accountability is sacrificed where reviewing courts defer to ALJ final orders on issues of law and policy. Standards of review provide state courts with a way of restoring the balance between independence and accountability, but reviewing courts should heighten the deference they give to the agency's legal and policy positions -- giving little or no deference to the ALJ on these issues -- even where …