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Taxes, Administrative Law, And Agency Expertise: Questioning The Orthodoxy, Scott Schumacher

Articles

One of the foundations of administrative law is that federal agencies and their employees are experts in their respective fields. In addition, the many judgments and decisions made by these experts are based on a thorough record after extensive factfinding. As a result, so the theory goes, courts, particularly courts of general jurisdiction like the United States District Courts, should give deference to the determinations made by these experts. But what if the facts underpinning this foundation are not true in all cases? Should courts nevertheless provide deference to decisions by agencies when it is evident that an agency's determinations …

Unearthing The Lost History Of Seminole Rock, Sanne H. Knudsen, Amy J. Wildermuth

Articles

This Article documents the untethering of Bowles v. Seminole Rock [325 U.S. 410 (1945)]. It shows how, in the 1960s and 1970s, alongside an expanding administrative state, the doctrine transformed into a more mechanical and highly deferential form of agency deference. It further shows that this transformation is marked by a consistent lack of scholarly or judicial reflection on its underpinnings.

In doing so, this Article provides new depth to the emerging critiques of Seminole Rock deference and lends critical support for reexamination of the doctrine.

Lessons From The Lost History Of Seminole Rock, Sanne H. Knudsen, Amy J. Wildermuth

Articles

This Article informs the current debate over Auer v. Robbins (519 U.S. 452 (1997)) deference by exploring the roots of the Bowles v. Seminole Rock decision (325 U.S. 410 (1945)) and its subsequent reinterpretation through a creative approach. To do so, this Article offers a series of hypothetical opinions applying the various historical interpretations of Seminole Rock to a single set of facts.

Part I places Seminole Rock in the constellation of deference doctrines in administrative law so that one can easily understand what the doctrine is and when it applies. Part II examines the transformation of Seminole Rock through …

Tax Abuse According To Whom, Shannon Weeks Mccormack

Articles

In 1996, Congress banned the Treasury Department from enacting retroactive regulations but provided an important exception, allowing tax regulations to apply retroactively “to prevent abuse.” Congress did not, however, explicitly define abuse; nor did it designate to any specific actor the power to do so. This Article provides the first comprehensive look at the level of deference owed a Treasury regulation’s interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code’s abuse exception. Generally, a reviewing court owes some level of deference to an agency’s interpretation of the statute it is entrusted to administer. Some statutory interpretations are entitled to receive the strong standard …

From Chevron To Massachusetts: Justice Stevens's Approach To Securing The Public Interest, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

During the past three decades, one Supreme Court justice— John Paul Stevens—has authored two of the most significant administrative law decisions that speak to the judiciary’s role in checking agency interpretations of the statutes that they administer. In Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Justice Stevens’s landmark 1984 decision unanimously upheld the EPA’s construction of a term found in the Clean Air Act. Subsequently, in Massachusetts v. EPA, Justice Stevens’s 2007 opinion for a five-justice majority handed a major win to global environmental security by ordering the EPA to reconsider its refusal to regulate greenhouse …

The Myth Of The Win-Win: Misdiagnosis In The Business Of Reassembling Nature, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

This Article starts with a closer than customary look at the most serious obstacle to the ambitious campaign of environmental restoration that is the focus of this Symposium. That obstacle is the human brain.

The Article contends that human cognitive processes are marvelous designers of serviceable self-deceptions. In the war on nature that we witnessed in the twentieth century the most functional of these is the firm belief in a non-zero sum world. This is the conviction that gains from economic development could be enjoyed without sacrifice of the natural world.

This is a convenient, powerful, and serviceable myth although …