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Adjudicative Retroactivity In Administrative Law , Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

Although decided forty-five years ago, SEC v Cbenery Corp. ("Cbenery II") remains the Supreme Court's leading statement on the issue of retroactivity in administrative adjudication. According to Chenery II, administrative agencies may give meaning to statutory terms through adjudication, even if the rules applied in a particular adjudication have not been previously announced. The Court acknowledged that "announcing and applying a new standard of conduct" in an adjudicative proceeding would have a retroactive effect, but concluded that the agency's duty to be faithful to the "statutory design or to legal and equitable principles" may override concerns about retroactivity. The Court …