Law Commons^™

The Emperor’S New Clothes: The Variety Of Stakeholders In Climate Change Regulation Assuming The Mantle Of Federal And International Authority, Linda A. Malone

Linda A. Malone

In June 2017, President Donald Trump announced the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. President Trump believes the United States should be more focused on its economic wellbeing than on environmental concerns. Since being elected, President Trump has, with the help of the Environmental Protection Agency, been rolling back, or attempting to roll back, major climate change regulations. However, this Article points out that due to factors such as international law, the United States Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act, one cannotjust simply withdraw from an international agreement, such as the Paris Accord, or take back …

Mending Holes In The Rule Of (Administrative) Law, Evan J. Criddle

Evan J. Criddle

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Administration: Rethinking Popular Representation In Agency Rulemaking, Evan J. Criddle

Evan J. Criddle

Do administrative agencies undermine popular sovereignty when they make federal law? Over the last several decades, some scholars have argued that rulemaking by unelected agency officials imperils popular sovereignty and that federal law should resolve the apparent tension between regulatory practice and democratic principle by allowing the President to serve as a proxy for the "will of the people" in the administrative state. According to this view, placing federal rulemaking power firmly within the President's managerial control would advance popular preferences throughout the federal system.

This conventional wisdom is misguided. As political scientists have long recognized, the electorate's relative disengagement …

Reason-Giving, Rulemaking, And The Rule Of Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Strategic Institutional Positioning: How We Have Come To Generate Environmental Law Without Congress, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

The Commenting Power: Agency Accountability Through Public Participation, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Underground Environmental Regulations: Regulations Imposed As Mitigation Measures Under Ceqa Violate The California Administrative Procedure Act, Jonathan Wood

Jonathan Wood

What happens when an agency adopts a regulation under the California Environmental Quality Act as mitigation for a program’s environmental impact, without complying with the procedural requirements of the California Administrative Procedure Act? According to a recent California Court of Appeal decision – Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Fish and Wildlife – these mitigation measures, which this article refers to as underground environmental regulations, are invalid. This article defends that interpretation and addresses its consequences for agencies and the regulated public. Although these additional procedural protections benefit regulated parties in a variety of ways, they can also burden …

The Deeply Flawed Inaugural College Football Playoff: A Call For Structural Changes To Protect Against Undue Commercialization, To Ensure Transparency, And To Systematize Democratic Due Process, Matthew M. Heekin, Bruce W. Burton

Matthew M. Heekin

This article contends that the new College Football Playoff system (CFP)—as formulated and administered in 2014—contains a series of serious flaws. The new CFP system needlessly incorporates an anti-democratic structure, lacks in the transparency required for sustainability in a democratic society, and endangers the longstanding tradition of the student-athlete in American college athletics. This article offers several detailed suggestions—in part modeled on the Administrative Procedures Act—to correct these flaws and move towards an improved CFP system.

Employing the benchmarks of television viewership and advertising revenues, some have declared the inaugural 2014 College Football Playoff a success. From the purely commercial …

Constituencies And Contemporaneousness In Reason-Giving: Thoughts And Direction After T-Mobile, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Blackletter Statement Of Federal Administrative Law: Standing, Cynthia R. Farina

Cynthia R. Farina

No abstract provided.

The Death Of Tax Court Exceptionalism, Stephanie Hoffer, Christopher J. Walker

Christopher J. Walker

Tax exceptionalism—the view that tax law does not have to play by the administrative law rules that govern the rest of the regulatory state—has come under attack in recent years. In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected such exceptionalism by holding that judicial review of the Treasury Department’s interpretations of the tax code is subject to the same Chevron deference regime that applies throughout the administrative state. The D.C. Circuit followed suit by rejecting the IRS’s position that its notices are not subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). This Article calls for the demise of another instance …

Toward Adequacy, Sarah L. Brinton

Sarah L Brinton

Each year, hundreds of people, companies, organizations, and associations sue the federal government for injuries they have suffered at the hands of federal agencies. Such suits are often brought under the judicial review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), which Congress enacted expressly to allow broad access to courts in an age of increasing administrative agency action. By the terms of the APA itself, all final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court is reviewable under the APA.

But the very language meant to welcome such suits into court also acts as a …

Student And Professorial Causes Of Action Against Non-University Actors, Andrew Kloster

Andrew Kloster

While courts have increasingly looked to contract law to vindicate the rights of students against universities and colleges, traditional contract law sometimes provides inadequate protections in situations where rights are adversely affected by third-party action.

The rise of administrative oversight by the Department of Education and by other third-party governmental actors limits the universe of contracts that can be formed and is constantly changing the student-university relationship. This oversight is so pervasive that adverse administrative decisions of even private universities could possibly be characterized as state action or agency action for the purposes of a direct constitutional lawsuit or suit …

Leveling The Deference Playing Field, Kathryn E. Kovacs

Kathryn E. Kovacs

Judicial deference to federal agency expertise is appropriate. What is not appropriate is the judicial tendency to give the military more deference than other agencies not only in cases that directly implicate military expertise, but also in administrative law cases raising constitutional, environmental, and employment issues. This article argues that the military should receive no greater deference than other agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA established a single standard of judicial review for all agencies. Recent empirical studies have confirmed, however, what the case law has long revealed: that courts often apply different standards of review to different …

Leveling The Deference Playing Field, Kathryn E. Kovacs

Kathryn E. Kovacs

Judicial deference to federal agency expertise is appropriate. What is not appropriate is the judicial tendency to give the military more deference than other agencies not only in cases that directly implicate military expertise, but also in administrative law cases raising constitutional, environmental, and employment issues. This article argues that the military should receive no greater deference than other agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA established a single standard of judicial review for all agencies. Recent empirical studies have confirmed, however, what the case law has long revealed: that courts often apply different standards of review to different …

Toward Adequacy: Sense And Statutory Construction In The Judicial Review Provisions Of The Apa, Sarah L. Olson

Sarah L Olson

Each year, hundreds of people, companies, organizations, and associations sue the federal government for injuries they have suffered at the hands of federal agencies. Such suits are often brought under the judicial review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), which Congress enacted expressly to allow broad access to courts in an age of increasing administrative agency action. By the terms of the APA itself, all final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court is reviewable under the APA.

But the very language meant to welcome such suits into court also acts as a …

Is The United States Tax Court Exempt From Administrative Law Jurisprudence When Acting As A Reviewing Court?, Diane Fahey

Diane L. Fahey

To maintain legitimacy and stability, a government must have access to a reliable source of revenue. Taxes are the lifeblood that sustains a government. Therefore, as far back as 1931, the United States Supreme Court has enforced the principle that the executive branch of the federal government must be unimpaired in its ability to collect taxes owed; otherwise, the government could be undermined by citizens who attempt to delay or evade their obligation to pay taxes.

Taxpayers have always been permitted to dispute the amount of their liability; however, until recently, taxpayers had little opportunity to dispute the method employed …

Interim Report On The Administrative Law, Process And Procedure Project For The 21st Century, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.