Administrative Law Commons^™

Can The Epa Withdraw The Endangerment Finding?, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

The Trump administration has made repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases the centerpiece of its environmental deregulation agenda. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US, and more,” proclaimed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin when announcing the agency’s plan to reconsider the finding in March 2025. Since then, the agency has followed through, pushing endangerment finding repeal ahead of other, more traditional, deregulatory efforts. While politically popular with parts of President …

An Abundant Lack Of Introspection, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

In this review Jonathan Adler critiques Abundance authors Klein and Thompson's analysis of how regulation is holding back progress in decarbonization, America's housing supply crisis, and innovation. While agreeing with the authors' assessment that regulation policy is hampering efforts in these areas, Adler objects to the book's proposals for improving regulatory bottlenecks, arguing the authors of Abundance refuse to acknowledge the role of market institutions in creating abundant supply or to admit the fault in their assumption that the failures of centralized government decision making can be repaired while maintaining centralized government decision making.

This abstract has been constructed from …

The Federal Trust Responsibility In An Era Of Coastal Retreat: Climate Relocation, Fiduciary Governance, And The Future Of Tribal Self-Determination, Samuel Kohn

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Climate-driven displacement is no longer a speculative concern for Indian Country. Across our country, from Alaska, to the Gulf Coast, and the Pacific Northwest, Tribal communities confront accelerating erosion, sea-level rise, permafrost thaw, and chronic flooding that threaten not just individual structures, but the territorial foundations of Tribal sovereignty itself. Schools, clinics, water systems, housing, and transportation networks are increasingly exposed to conditions that render continued habitation unsafe or impossible. These impacts do not present as isolated disasters; they manifest as cumulative, slow-onset processes that erode the capacity of Tribal governments to govern in place.

This Symposium Essay advances the …

The Undue Degradation Of "Undue Degradation": How Loper Bright Threatens To Weaken Environmental Protections For Domestic Lithium Operations, Griffin M. Krawitz

William & Mary Law Review

On October 24, 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project, a seven-thousand- acre mining operation in the middle of the Nevada desert. Denoted as the “first domestic lithium project to get full regulatory approval under the Biden Administration,” the new mine is projected to supply enough batteries to power roughly 370,000 electric vehicles (EVs) every year for the next twenty-three years. Despite concern that the mine parallels and threatens the habitat for the Tiehm’s buckwheat (the only known habitat containing the critically endangered and culturally significant flower), the BLM has been adamant that its …

The Path To Abundance: The Legal, Policy, And Political Challenges Of An Abundance Agenda, Eric Biber

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

A range of public intellectuals and academics have argued that America is increasingly unable to advance major projects, such as housing, renewable energy, and innovation, because of legal obstacles such as judicial review and regulatory requirements. In response, the abundance movement has called for legal reforms to speed up project development. The abundance movement has identified real problems that require solutions. Unfortunately, the movement also faces political and legal challenges as well. Reform will require difficult tradeoffs, which will be politically difficult. Abundance reforms will likely not be politically popular, and will be particularly hard to implement in a polarized …

The Executive's Takeover Of Independent Agencies: How Institutional Design Gave Way To Political Will, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

The anticipated demise of the independent agency is a saga that implicates Congress as much as it does the President or the Supreme Court. By capitulating to presidential initiatives and failing to defend their institutional prerogatives, Congress has facilitated presidential control of the administrative state. Indeed, irrespective of whether the Court formally repudiates Humphrey’s Executor, Congress has largely acquiesced to a regime whereby presidents essentially control independent agencies. By highlighting the competing incentives of Congress and the White House, this Essay explains the rise of presidential unilateralism vis-à-vis independent agencies. This Essay also casts light on a critically important but …

Embattled Sec Climate-Related Disclosure Regulation, Thomas M. Madden

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article informs the reader as to the current state of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC or Commission) Release No. 33-11275, The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (the Final Rules), approved and then stayed by the Commission in March of 2024 and now being challenged in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. It argues that the Final Rules are sound and should be upheld for seven articulated reasons, taking into account the arguments made by petitioners and amici curiae in the Eighth Circuit. Moreover, the Article argues that even with Chevron overturned, the Final Rules …

The Overlooked Case Of October Term 2023: Implications Of Sec V. Jarkesy On Environmental Law, Hayden Miller

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In the summer of 2024, the Supreme Court published its opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy. In Jarkesy, the Court held that certain administrative cases must be adjudicated through Article III courts with juries instead of administrative law tribunals. The case involved fraud charges against George Jarkesy, Jr., an investment manager. After a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation, the agency alleged that Jarkesy had violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Subsequently, SEC Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) levied civil penalties against Jarkesy for securities fraud. On appeal, the Court held that securities fraud under the Securities Exchange Act …

"America's Paradise": The Enduring Costs Of Imperialism And Colonial Rule--A Case Study Of The U.S. Virgin Islands, Diamond C. Ash

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

As the United States prepared to enter World War I, it secured another strategic territorial holding in the Caribbean. Six days before declaring war on Germany, the United States purchased the Virgin Islands (USVI) from Denmark—not for economic development or the welfare of its people, but as a military asset. St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John became a strategic outpost for naval dominance and national security.

Like other unincorporated U.S. territories, the USVI’s governance was shaped by imperial ambitions and reinforced through legal structures that preserved federal dominance. In practice, this created a system of colonial rule in which …

Four Ways To Deconstruct Regulation And Undermine Democracy In The States, Glen Staszewski

William & Mary Law Review

A few years before the Supreme Court formally overruled Chevron, anti-administrative activists successfully prohibited judicial deference to reasonable exercises of interpretive discretion by regulatory agencies in a handful of receptive states. State governments’ treatment of this issue is likely to generate even more attention in Loper Bright’s wake. This Article presents novel case studies of four different ways in which state governments have prohibited deference to state agencies by state courts: (1) judicial decisions in Mississippi and Ohio, (2) a constitutional amendment proposed by an appointed commission and adopted pursuant to the initiative process in Florida, (3) statutes …

Agency Self-Funding In The Antinovelty Age, Zois Manaris

William & Mary Law Review Online

This Article demonstrates that CFSA's [Community Financial Services Association of American v. CFPB] introduction of antinovelty into the self-funding space, including its particular antinovelty approach, poses an existential threat to any and all agency self-funding. On its face, this may seem like something that will only worry the more functionalist or more liberal crowd—likely because so much of the recent discussion surrounding agency self-funding has revolved around the polarizing CFPB. But even those who might want the CFPB struck down and those who subscribe to the antinovelty rationale as a general matter (between those two camps there …

The Delegation Doctrine, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Despite the focus on the Court’s recent major questions cases, signs of an emergent delegation doctrine can also be found elsewhere. Most significantly, seeds of a delegation doctrine have been planted within the Court’s Chevron jurisprudence. The Court’s increased reluctance to grant Chevron deference to administrative agencies--and its insistence that courts first conclude that interpretive authority has been delegated before deferring to any agency interpretation—rests on the same core premise as the Court’s recent major questions doctrine decisions. It also suggests that the “new” major questions doctrine is not as new as it might seem, but rather a logical outgrowth …

The Independent Agency Myth, Neal Devins, David E. Lewis

Faculty Publications

Republicans and Democrats are fighting the wrong fight over independent agencies. Republicans are wrong to see independent agencies as anathema to hierarchical presidential control of the administrative state. Democrats are likewise wrong to reflexively defend independent agency expertise and influence. Supreme Court Justices also need to break free from this trap; the ongoing struggle over independent agencies should be about facts, not partisan rhetoric.

This Article seeks to reframe the fight over independent agencies. By surveying executive branch and independent agency department heads and supervisors during the Obama (2014) and Trump (2020) administrations, we have assembled unique and expansive data …

What Would Happen To All Of The Prior Chevron Cases In A Non-Chevron World?, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Using What We Have: How Existing Legal Authorities Can Help Fix America's Nursing Home Crisis, Nina A. Kohn, Adrianna Duggan, Justin Cole, Nada Aljassar

William & Mary Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed systemic quality-of-care problems in American nursing homes as well as the deadly consequences of a regulatory system that has enabled nursing homes to divert funds needed for care to profit. Policy experts have responded by urging regulators to improve nursing-home oversight practices and by calling for new regulatory and statutory authority to increase accountability. These calls, however, have been met with sharp political headwinds. This Article suggests a path around the political impasse. Specifically, it identifies and explores four opportunities to leverage existing statutory schemes to create stronger incentives for nursing homes to provide high-quality care. …

Policing Veterans: What The Veterans Affairs Police Can Illustrate About The Policing Of Disability In America, Zachary R.M. Outzen

Faculty Publications

The Department of Veterans Affairs Police (“VA Police”), a federal law enforcement agency tasked with law enforcement on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) properties, has a shocking record of misconduct and brutality against veterans. Because the VA is the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, the VA Police are primarily responsible for policing VA medical facilities. While issues facing the veteran community have largely been analyzed as separate from those facing the American public at large, VA medical facilities replicate broader socioeconomic trends in policing of vulnerable populations. Veterans receiving VA healthcare services are disproportionately likely to be …

Automated Government For Vulnerable Citizens: Intermediating Rights, Sofia Ranchordás, Luisa Scarcella

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Filing tax returns or applying for unemployment benefits are some of the most common government transactions. Yet interacting with tax and social security authorities is for many a source of government anxiety. Bureaucracy, regulatory delays, and the complexity of the administrative legal system have been regarded for decades as the key reasons for this problem. Digital government promised a solution in the shape of simplified forms, electronic filing, and better communication with citizens. In the United States, privately developed software systems such as TurboTax and MiDAS emerged as intermediaries between citizens and digital government, selling convenience and efficiency. These systems …

Normalizing Reproductive Genetic Innovation, Myrisha S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

Many societally accepted techniques were quite controversial at inception and for decades after. For example, historically, dialysis was “unnatural,” vaccination was “the poisoned quill,” and artificial insemination was akin to adultery. Despite social and cultural hurdles, the aforementioned medical techniques have today attained overall public acceptance, permissive legal treatment, and even health insurance coverage in some cases.

Unlike many now-routine treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg freezing, and organ transplantation, which flourished without significant governmental intervention, today’s controversial medical treatments, especially those involving reproductive genetic innovation, face intense regulatory barriers. Reproductive genetic innovation, which is the combination of IVF …

All The Sovereign's Agents: The Constitutional Credentials Of Administration, Kate Jackson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

[...] This Article suggests that agency institutions should be measured against the notion that popular sovereignty demands not consensus and consent, but instead institutions that permit citizens to understand themselves as coequal participants in the collective decision-making process.

Part I situates administrative agencies in an understanding of liberal democratic constitutionalism that eschews outmoded notions of popular sovereignty and natural law. It will then explain how adequately conceived notions of the separation of powers and the rule of law cannot serve as indefeasible objections to administration. Part II makes a positive case for agency authority by drawing from the insights gained …

Super Deference And Heightened Security, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Judicial review of federal agency action is systematically deferential. Such deference is arguably at its peak where agencies address scientific and highly technical matters within their area of expertise. This is what some call “super deference.” While there may be strong arguments for deferential review of agency scientific determinations as a general matter, there are reasons to question such deference when agency action implicates constitutional concerns. In particular, where agency actions trigger heightened scrutiny, such as occurs when agency actions intrude upon expressly enumerated or otherwise recognized fundamental rights or adopt constitutionally suspect classifications, courts should not apply traditional levels …

"Not For Human Consumption": Prison Food's Absent Regulatory Regime, Amanda Chan, Anna Nathanson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Prison food is poor quality. The regulations which govern prison food are subpar and unenforceable by prisoners, due in large part to Sandin v. Conner and the Prison Litigation Reform Act. This Article aims to draw attention to the dire food conditions in prisons, explain the lax federal administrative law that permits these conditions, highlight the role of Sandin v. Conner and the Prison Litigation Reform Act in curtailing prisoners’ rights, and criticize the role of the private entity American Correctional Association in enabling mass neglect of prison food. The authors recommend that the Prison Litigation Reform Act be repealed, …

Stifling Nascent Concerted Activity: The Nlrb And The Alstate Decision, Melanie R. Allen

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made a number of significant changes to the interpretation and enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act) under the Trump administration. The collective impact of these changes may make it more difficult for workers to bring successful unfair labor practice charges against their employers. Although NLRB case decisions and rulemaking affect a large proportion of American workers, the significance of these policy changes is often not widely recognized. This Note will examine one such change—the Board’s 2019 Alstate Maintenance decision that overturned its 2011 decision in WorldMark by Wyndham.

The Emerging Lessons Of Trump V. Hawaii, Shalini Bhargava Ray

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the years since the Supreme Court decided Trump v. Hawaii, federal district courts have adjudicated dozens of rights-based challenges to executive action in immigration law. Plaintiffs, including U.S. citizens, civil rights organizations, and immigrants themselves, have alleged violations of the First Amendment and the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause with some regularity based on President Trump’s animus toward immigrants. This Article assesses Hawaii’s impact on these challenges to immigration policy, and it offers two observations. First, Hawaii has amplified federal courts’ practice of privileging administrative law claims over constitutional ones. For example, courts considering …

Who Constrains Presidential Exercise Of Delegated Powers?, Rebecca L. Brown

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Building on the work of administrative law scholars who have identified and illuminated the several components of the problem over the years, this Article will seek to show what has happened when a cluster of separate circumstances have come together to create a new and serious threat to individual liberty when the President exercises expansive delegated authority. Several doctrinal components lead to this confluence: First, the moribund “intelligible principle” test has evolved to provide little or no constraint on this or any other delegation. Second, a delegation to the President, specifically, is not subject to the procedural requirements of the …

Mother Nature Needs Her Sox: Reviewing The Impetus And Goals Of The Increased Financial Regulations Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act And How They Parallel The Needs Of Today's Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Meyer

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

As climate change and natural disasters appear to be increasingly prevalent across the United States, the question of how to respond to these threats looms large. Arguably, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) represents the tip of that responding spear. The agency, literally dedicated to protecting the environment, is positioned to drive industry environmental standards, set sustainable metrics, and even determine thresholds for habitable life.

Looks can be deceiving, though. This Note examines the current state of the EPA, and the minimal effect it currently has on penalizing and deterring industry environmental degradation. It specifically focuses on a number of high-profile …

Ground Zero: The Irs Attack On Syndicated Conservation Easements, Beckett G. Cantley, Geoffrey C. Dietrich

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

On June 25, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) announced a settlement initiative (“SI”) to certain taxpayers with pending docketed cases involving syndicated conservation easement (“SCE”) transactions. The SI is the current culmination of a long series of attacks by the IRS against SCE transactions. The IRS has recently found success in the Tax Court against SCEs, but the agency’s overall legal position may be overstated. It is possible that the recent SI is merely an attempt to capitalize on leverage while the IRS has it. Regardless, the current state of the law surrounding SCEs is murky at best. Whether …

Fiscal Waivers And State "Innovation" In Health Care, Matthew B. Lawrence

William & Mary Law Review

This Article describes how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has used fiscal waiver authorities—delegated power to alter federal payments to states under Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—to influence state health policy choices. It highlights how the agency uses its fiscal waiver authorities to shape which reforms states choose to pursue, in some cases inspiring genuine state innovation and in others encouraging states to adopt reforms favored by HHS or discouraging states from adopting disfavored reforms. Moreover, while HHS has sometimes influenced state policy making in ways that further the substantive goals of the ACA and …

Relentless Pursuits: Reflections Of An Immigration And Human Rights Clinician On The Past Four Years, Sarah H. Paoletti

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing Invisible Walls: Sotomayor's Dissents In An Era Of Immigration Exceptionalism, Karla Mckanders

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Twenty-First Century Labor Law: Striking The Right Balance Between Workplace Civility Rules That Accommodate Equal Employment Opportunity Obligations And The Loss Of Protection For Concerted Activities Under The National Labor Relations Act, Christine Neylon O'Brien

William & Mary Business Law Review

Employees who engage in protected concerted activities relating to work generally are shielded from discipline by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Where otherwise protected work-related activity involves profanity or offensive speech or actions, whether in or out of the workplace, on a picket line, or on social media, such may violate employer civility rules and/or equal employment opportunity laws. Important interests are at stake, including for employers to maintain a safe, discrimination-free workplace; and for employees to exercise their right to communicate about workplace matters. This Article analyzes recent cases on the question when offensive employee …