Administrative Law Commons^™

Administrative Law's Unavailing Duties, Daniel Z. Epstein

Texas A&M Law Review

Through a novel empirical approach, this Article shows that legal doctrine does not determine whether federal courts provide remedies when agencies fail to enforce a statutory duty. Plaintiffs are most likely to succeed against the government when litigating statutory procedures located within agency-specific statutes and which raise major policy questions in immigration, healthcare, Native American rights, public housing, the environment, or labor. Others are more likely to lose against the government: plaintiffs litigating statutory violations involving procedures not specific to an agency, but which apply to officers and agencies throughout the bureaucracy. These cases involve duties governing ethics, transparency, recordkeeping, …

The Fundamental Right Of A Safe Place To Call Home: Why The United States Immigration System Needs To Reform Its Response To Humanitarian Crises, Mackenzie Biles

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

As part of its overall aim to identify how the United States can more proactively intervene in humanitarian crises, this article will examine the Department of Homeland Security’s role in securing the safe arrival of migrants into the United States and helping them to thrive thereafter, using the crisis in Afghanistan as a lens. Part I outlines the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and the events culminating in the 2021 military withdrawal, while seeking to remain mindful of this history’s complexity and nuance. Part II examines existing U.S. immigration mechanisms, with a focus on humanitarian parole, and critiques their inadequacy in …

Cover, Table Of Contents & Masthead, Kateri Son

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Due Process Hearing Decisions For “§ 504-Only” Students, Perry A. Zirkel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Many empirical analyses have tracked the trends for both the frequency and outcomes of due process hearing decisions under the IDEA. However, the literature entirely lacks any such analysis of due process hearing decisions under § 504. This gap in the literature is largely attributable to two overlapping factors: these decisions are much less numerous than those under the IDEA, and they are not publicly available. The purpose of this article is to address this gap in the professional literature through an exploratory analysis of the frequency and outcomes of due process hearings for § 504-only students. Part I of …

Making Conflicts Of Interest Matter To Federally Funded Academic Research, Kimberly M. Papadantonakis

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article first provides background on the academic science and technology enterprise and the concerns of counterintelligence agencies that prompted the White House, DOJ, and Congress to act. Section III discusses specific criminal and civil cases, focusing on where prosecutions succeeded or faltered. Section IV covers the new rules and how the agencies are implementing them. Finally, Section V analyzes themes from the cases and examines how the new rules may impact future enforcement and compliance efforts.

Legal Summaries Of Administrative Law Cases, Kimberly M. Papadantonakis

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Ghost Guns: A Case Study On The Tension Between Public Exigencies And Statutory Construction, Bradley Krause

Catholic University Law Review

Administrative agencies often navigate public policy issues while simultaneously handling complex and highly technical matters. When facing a public emergency, how should courts interpret these agencies’ authorizing statutes? What rules of thumb exist to guide the courts? This Comment answers these questions through a case study on ongoing litigation pertaining to a recent ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) regulation. The regulation, targeted towards ghost guns (also known as “privately manufactured firearms”), seeks to incorporate these weapons within pre-existing definitions in the ATF’s authorizing statute, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA). In spite of challenges to the regulation, …

Yellowstone National Park's Record Of Decision On Bison Management, Lila Bennett

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Bison herds once roamed the American Plains by the millions and were a staple in the lives of Native Americans. By the late 1800’s, bison were nearly extinct due to the westward expansion of European settlers and over hunting. Now, there is a population of merely 30,000 wild bison in North America. Although bison no longer face threats of immediate extinction, wild herds face stark realities of disease, habitat loss, and genetic degradation.

Schutter V. State Board Of Land Commissioners, Gillian P. Ellison

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Schutter v. State Board of Land Commissioners, the Montana Supreme Court addressed the State’s fiduciary obligation in the context of water rights appurtenant to school trust lands. Central to the Court’s holding was the State’s fiduciary duty in managing lands held in trust for the benefit of the State. By upholding the State’s claim to partial ownership of a water right originating on private land, the Schutter Court underscored the tension between private property rights and the State's trust fiduciary duties.

Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force V. Montana, Sarah J. Leopard

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force v. Montana evaluates the efficacy of the proposed 2024 gray wolf floating season in preventing harm to grizzly bears, a protected species in Montana. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the implementation of a “serious questions” test for preliminary injunctions that is specific to Endangered Species Act cases. The Court agreed with the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction that limited the 2024 floating season temporally, but modified the injunction in two respects, thereby narrowing its application. The Court’s holding signifies the continuation of a preliminary injunction standard that values protections for …

Is Hipaa Dead? How Recent Developments In Ftc Section 5 Enforcement May Impact Traditional Notions Of Health Privacy, Brian Patrick

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Conversation With Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Brett M. Kavanaugh, J. Joel Alicea

Catholic University Law Review

On Thursday, September 26th, 2024, the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at The Catholic University of America hosted a conversation between Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Professor J. Joel Alicea. This was the inaugural event of the new Center. The conversation covered topics such as constitutional interpretation, the separation of powers, religious liberty, and the Catholic intellectual tradition. This is a transcript of the conversation, and the text appears substantially as it was delivered. The video of the event may be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sKvSwzkmqo.

To Surmount Paramount Decrees By Degrees, Harry Kazenoff

Catholic University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court in United States v. Paramount and the subsequent Paramount Decrees in 1948 were the federal government’s original attempt to address the consolidation and concentration of the movie production, distribution, and exhibition markets. The government reversed its decision in 2020 because of both changes in the film industry and a change in the legal application of antitrust law. There are two schools of antitrust law thought: structuralism and the consumer welfare standard. The former is concerned with market concentration and supports the Paramount Decrees, and the latter is concerned with prices for consumers and is skeptical …

All’S “Fair” In Love & Copyright: Copyright’S Incentivization Of Fiction Through The Second Fair Use Factor & Idea/Expression Dichotomy, Peyton J. Smetana

Catholic University Law Review

Copyright Law is supposed to encourage authors to create works of authorship, both factual and fictional. However, Copyright jurisprudence has developed to only protect expression, and not idea, to ensure the continued dissemination of knowledge. In solidifying this belief, two doctrines—Fair Use and the idea/expression dichotomy—allow for individuals to utilize other works of authorship without it being considered copyright infringement. Though widely used throughout the judicial system, the analysis for both the second Fair Use factor—Nature of the Copyrighted Work—and the idea/expression dichotomy are left without clear guidelines, leaving judges with an insurmountable task of determining what is and is …

Corner Post V. Board Of Governors Of Federal Reserve System, Alexis Karbowicz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System resolved a circuit split on when claims against the federal government “accrue” under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2401(a). The Supreme Court clarified whether plaintiffs must file challenges within six years of a regulation’s enactment or may wait until they are directly affected by an agency action, even if that occurs years later. Examining the case’s factual and procedural background provides insight into the relevant regulatory context. The Court’s analysis offers a detailed interpretation of statutory language and establishes principles of claim accrual, alongside the policy considerations of regulatory finality and …

The Biopiracy Of Traditional Knowledge In United States Patent Law, Hannah Green

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States intellectual property (“IP”) system is deeply intertwined with our country’s history and constitution. t is foundational in favoring young American inventors. George Washington signed the first patent act in 1790 in hopes of promoting the innovation and progress of science and useful arts. Yet, our patent system was also built around the Western tradition of individualism and competition, which failed to recognize the communal nature and traditional knowledge of tribal communities. This disparity allows the biopiracy of traditional knowledge to be lawful. This comment will explore the harmful toll that United States patent law has taken on …

New, Derivative: Third-Party Litigation Finance And Derivatives Regulation, Martin Flores

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Litigation finance is globally abundant and largely unregulated in the United States. The mechanics behind third-party litigation finance are simple: The funder fronts litigation costs in exchange for a promised share of the proceeds if the litigant succeeds. While the normative debate about the value of these contracts in society endures, the litigation finance industry has new players in hedge funds and other opaque investment firms seeking high returns from risky litigation. Many scholars agree on whether to regulate these third-party litigation finance firms. The key debate rages on how to rein in an unbridled industry.

To add to this …

Legal Implications Of Digital Health Apps Informing Food Allergy Labeling For Consumers' Health And Privacy Protection, Kathy Keunghee Kim

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines food allergy labeling’s use in a digital format. Allergy information is typically found on food packaging and containers to help consumers identify individually concerned allergens. Given the critical role that food allergy labels play in preventing unexpected allergic reactions before selecting or consuming food, it is essential to comprehend the labeling descriptions. However, current regulations and laws regarding allergy labeling often confuse consumers due to the existence of mandatory and voluntary Precautionary Allergy Labeling (PAL) categories and the absence of laws and regulations that require allergy information for restaurant meals. Technology companies have introduced digital health and …

Group Homes For The Mentally Retarded In Maine: Legislative Intent And Administrative Process, James C. Hunt

Maine Law Review

Historically, mentally retarded citizens of Maine have been confined to Pineland Center, the state's principal institution for the mentally retarded. In 1975 a class action suit, Wuori v. Zitnay, was filed in federal district court on behalf of "involuntarily confined" Pineland residents and "conditionally released" residents "in need of care . . . in a humane and healthful . . . environment." Three years later agencies and officials of the State of Maine entered into a consent judgment which laid down a "comprehensive plan designed to bring about speedy and meaningful relief" to the plaintiff class. The relief granted was …

Federal Agency Nonacquiescence: Defining And Enforcing Constitutional Limitations On Bad Faith Agency Adjudication, Christopher C. Taintor

Maine Law Review

A leading authority in the field of administrative law has posited that "[t]he availability of judicial review is the necessary condition, psychologically if not logically, of a system of administrative power which purports to be legitimate, or legally valid." There is no question that judicial review is an imperfect check on agency action: it is susceptible to criticism for, on the one hand, the excessive limitations on its exercise, and on the other for the arguably inferior level of understanding from which courts must approach matters uniquely within the competence of particular administrators. Nonetheless, the courts remain "the acknowledged architects …

Embracing The Heat: “Hot Labor Summer” Rekindles Nlrb Authority, And The Need For Strategic Enforcement, Matthew J. Mallon

University of Miami Business Law Review

The National Labor Relations Board is solely responsible for enforcing federal labor union law, but it lacks the power to effectively remedy and deter unlawful acts. This situation allows employers to violate labor law with near impunity, denying their employees’ rights guaranteed under federal law. In Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, the NLRB overturned decades-old precedent and adopted a more effective standard for determining whether to issue an order for an employer to bargain in good faith with a union. The new rule disincentivizes unfair labor practices, which promotes employees’ freedom to designate representatives for collective bargaining, but alone, it …

The Cftc, Mqd, And Climate Change, Todd Phillips, Will Dobbs-Allsopp

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

In June 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a request for information (RFI) “to better inform its understanding and oversight of climate-related financial risk as pertinent to the derivatives markets and underlying commodities markets.” The financial regulatory agency is one of several working to address climate-related risks present within the financial system. Given its unique role in regulating derivatives and overseeing commodity markets, the CFTC is working to ensure that the private sector may effectively use those products to address its own climate-related risks. Because such risks threaten the nation’s financial stability and private-sector operations, it is imperative …

"Major Questions" About Preemption, Kamaile A.N. Turčan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Predicting (And Protecting) The Future Of Environmental Law After Loper Bright, Sanne H. Knudsen

Articles

Nostradamus, the sixteenth-century French philosopher and seer, is said to have predicted many things: the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, the Great Fire of London, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Of course, there are skeptics. The predictions, after all, tended to be “cryptic and vague.”

Still, if alive today, I wonder what quatrain Nostradamus might write—and what elusive meaning his fans might try to decode—about the future of environmental law in the United States. Would he predict that environmental law will be ravaged by the binary politics of the moment, reduced …

Using 'Enacted Purposes' To Interpret A Regulatory Statute, Bernard S. Sharfman

SMU Law Review Forum

How does a regulatory agency or a reviewing court deal with the multiple “enacted purposes” that may exist in a regulatory statute? In this Article it is argued that the problem of multiple purposes can be optimally dealt with by looking at these purposes as forming an optimization problem—minimization or maximization. This novel approach requires identifying, if possible, one purpose as the primary objective and then treating the other clearly stated purposes as constraints. Depending on the issue at hand, not all constraints will be relevant. However, the primary objective will always need to be considered. Once the primary objective …

Ai Regulation Has Its Own Alignment Problem: The Technical And Institutional Feasibility Of Disclosure, Registration, Licensing, And Auditing, Neel Guha, Christie M. Lawrence, Lindsey A. Gailmard, Kit T. Rodolfa, Faiz Surani, Rishi Bommasani, Inioluwa Deborah Raji, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Colleen Honigsberg, Percy Liang, Daniel E. Ho

Faculty Scholarship

Calls for regulating artificial intelligence (“AI”) are widespread, but there remains little consensus on both the specific harms that regulation can and should address and the appropriate regulatory actions to take. Computer scientists propose technical solutions that may be infeasible or illegal; lawyers propose regulation that may be technically impossible; and commentators propose policies that may backfire. AI regulation, in that sense, has its own alignment problem, in which proposed interventions are often misaligned with societal values.This Article assesses the alignment and technical and institutional feasibility of four dominant proposals for AI regulation in the United States: disclosure, registration, licensing, …

The New Frontier Of Guidance Reviewability, Tomás Rios

Michigan Law Review

In the administrative context, agency actions must be “final” to trigger judicial review. The Supreme Court’s opinions in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co. marked an important shift in finality doctrine by emphasizing that the calculus of whether agency guidance is “final” may turn on its practical effects. For decades, agency guidance rarely warranted judicial review because it is not legally binding and, thus, not final. But the advent of the Sackett-Hawkes pragmatic analysis has changed the landscape, raising particular concerns for agencies relying on promulgating guidance documents to “softly” regulate. This …

Reimagining Constitutional Institutions: Integrity, Efficiency, And Accountability (Justice Es Venkataramiah Centennial Memorial Lecture), Justice Ps Narasimha

National Law School Journal

In this 'Justice ES Venkataramiah Centennial Memorial Lecture' delivered at the National Law School of India University in 2024, Justice PS Narasimha lays down the importance of fourth branch institutions. He points to the constitutional history and framework that established them, lays down their evolution, and examines their role and functioning in the current context.

Not-So-Special Solicitude, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

In a high-profile case last term about state standing to sue in federal court, Justice Gorsuch deemed it “hard not to wonder why” the majority said “nothing about ‘special solicitude.’” The silence was indeed surprising, for in a landmark decision several years earlier, the Supreme Court had declared that states were “entitled to special solicitude”—presumably meaning some sort of preferential treatment—“in [the] standing analysis.” And since then, commentators had depicted the concept as permitting opportunistic states to wage ideological crusades in courts across the country, especially through administrative-law attacks on federal-government defendants.

But what if “special solicitude” is not so …

Administrative Law, Noah P. Sullivan

University of Richmond Law Review

This article marks the first Administrative Law update in the Annual Survey of Virginia Law since 2014. Looking back over the past ten years, Virginia administrative law has remained remarkably stable in comparison to federal administrative law. Debate about a “major questions doctrine” has largely been absent in a state where the General Assembly is active and remains the dominant policy-making body in Virginia government. Debate about Chevron is nonexistent here because agencies have never received deference for their reasonable interpretations of ambiguous Virginia statutes. Still, there has been change, and this article will highlight the most significant developments in …