Notice & Comment

Ad Law Reading Room: “Designing Policymaking Mechanisms for Regulatory Dynamism,” by Cohen, Edwards, Jones, and Ohm

Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “Designing Policymaking Mechanisms for Regulatory Dynamism,” by Julie E. Cohen, Nina-Simone Edwards, Meg Leta Jones, and Paul Ohm. Here is the abstract: The administrative state is struggling to counter the harms of today’s information economy. Existing mechanisms for policymaking fall short both substantively and procedurally. Substantively, regulators face […]

Notice & Comment

The Fed’s Nondelegation Problem as a “Quasi-Private” Entity, by Domenic Powell

Has the Supreme Court closed one avenue of constitutional arguments against the structure of the Federal Reserve only to open up another? By labeling the Fed a “quasi-private” entity, parties aggrieved by the Federal Reserve’s actions may challenge them as violations of the private nondelegation doctrine. On May 22, the Court made major waves in […]

Notice & Comment

The Curious Case of Brendan Carr Versus EchoStar, by Lawrence J. Spiwak

The telecom community’s ears recently perked up when the Wall Street Journal reported that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to Charlie Ergen, Chairman of the Board of EchoStar Corporation, threatening to revoke a significant portion of the company’s spectrum licenses. According to Carr, EchoStar is “warehousing” spectrum by failing to […]

Notice & Comment

A Victory for Federal Workers in the Fourth Circuit, by Jordan Ascher

Federal employees seeking to challenge the Trump Administration’s unprecedented efforts to dismantle federal agencies and decimate the civil service have faced a dilemma. The federal Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) generally permits employees to contest serious adverse personnel actions only before an administrative body, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), rather than in federal district […]

Notice & Comment

Texas Public Policy Foundation v. Department of State and Its Potential Unanticipated Consequences

Recently, as noted in this blog, a Fifth Circuit panel considered whether the names and email addresses of low-level federal employees who worked on climate change issues must be provided to a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requester. The divided panel issued a strong pro-transparency decision, concluding that government employees, even low-level ones, generally lack […]

Notice & Comment

Fifth Circuit Review – Reviewed: Eight Years of Equity

In NLRB v. AllService Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc., a divided Fifth Circuit panel held that the NLRB could not revive a 2013 order that the Board had previously abandoned. The NLRB’s underlying complaint alleged, inter alia, that the defendant had laid off several employees due to anti-union animus. The NLRB adopted an order that largely […]

Notice & Comment

D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed: “Special En Banc,” Immigration Standards of Review, and More

The D.C. Circuit issued another unusual en banc order last week in challenges to funding cuts at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It also vacated and remanded in two cases involving immigration standards of review. And it denied petitions for review in an SEC whistleblower case and a FERC case. “Special En Banc” Before […]

Notice & Comment

D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed: Time Bars for FISA and Patriot Act Claims

The D.C. Circuit published two opinions last week. Page v. Comey addressed an already-reported on lawsuit in which Carter Page, an advisor to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, alleged that the FBI unlawfully surveilled him and damaged his reputation by leaking information to the press. In 2022, the district court dismissed his complaint for failure to state a claim. […]

Notice & Comment

When Might President Trump Nominate an OIRA Administrator?

Many of Trump’s personnel choices have been front page news (…) but you have not seen many headlines about the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Long considered a very important policy official, OIRA Administrator nominations have started slipping to the back burner. Here’s an update with some new context that […]

Notice & Comment

ACUS Request for Information About Intergovernmental Partnerships

ACUS is requesting information about intergovernmental partnerships as part of the ongoing project Federal Agency Collaboration with State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Governments.

Notice & Comment

The Senate’s Recent Actions on the Congressional Review Act, by Molly Reynolds

On Wednesday, May 21, the U.S. Senate took a series of procedural votes that, depending on who you ask, either “cross[ed] a point of no return” in terms of the chamber’s filibuster or “preserv[ed] the Senate’s prerogatives.” How did we get to this point and what actually happened? Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), enacted […]

Notice & Comment

Responding to a Quorumless Merit Systems Protection Board, by Jordan Ascher

The Trump Administration, using a range of means, has sought to decimate the federal civil service. That has included efforts to fire probationary employees, initiate large-scale reductions in force at multiple agencies, and place large groups of employees on administrative leave. At the same time, the administration has hampered the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), […]

Notice & Comment

Ad Law Reading Room: “The Lost English Roots of Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking,” by Rephael Stern

Today’s Ad Law Reading Room entry is “The Lost English Roots of Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking,” by Rephael G. Stern, which was recently published by the Yale Law Journal and posted to SSRN. Here is the abstract: Notice-and-comment rulemaking is arguably the most important procedure in the modern administrative state. Influential accounts even frame it as the […]

Notice & Comment

The 100 Days That Put the Nail in the Coffin of Administrative Law, by Seth Frotman & Brad Lipton

It is clear now how the Trump Administration plans to handle what remains of modern administrative law while advancing its agenda. The plan is to break it. Just look at the Administration’s conduct over its first 100 days. Wacky executive orders that are no less dangerous for becoming instantly infamous. Abuses of interim final rules, […]

Notice & Comment

Fifth Circuit Review – Reviewed: Tuning Out Form 395-B

In National Religious Broadcasters v. FCC, the Fifth Circuit struck down the FCC’s 2024 Rule requiring television and radio broadcasters to annually report employee demographic information using a form known as Form 395-B. The case, brought by a coalition of broadcasters and industry associations, centered on whether the FCC had the statutory authority to mandate […]

A blog from the Yale Journal on Regulation and ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice.

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