Much of the debate in Lucia has focused on history, and more particularly on the original understanding of who counted as an officer at the founding. As Neil Kinkopf notes, this reflects in part the paucity of Supreme Court precedent on the meaning of inferior officer; it also reflects the originalist focus of many contemporary […]
For some years, there has been a lot of debate (including in a symposium in this blog) about the continued viability of the Auer/Seminole Rock deference doctrine, under which, subject to various exceptions, courts are supposed to give an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations “controlling weight, unless that interpretation is plainly erroneous or inconsistent […]
In this symposium on Lucia v. SEC, most of the posts have, quite rightly, discussed what Lucia is actually about—whether ALJs are inferior officers for purposes of the appointments clause to the Constitution. And although the question is not before the Court, if they are inferior officers then that raises intriguing questions about for-cause removal […]
Lucia v. SEC is technically about the Appointments Clause, but really it is about unfairness. Can defendants get a fair shake in ALJ proceedings? If they can’t, there may be a reason for the Supreme Court to do something about ALJs. But if they can, then twisting and turning doctrine to undo this pillar of […]
Lucia v. SEC seems set to give some content to Buckley v. Valeo’s cryptic distinction: while officers exercise “significant authority under the laws of the United States,” employees are just “lesser functionaries.” Since Buckley, the Court expanded its analysis again in Freytag, but the employee-officer distinction still remains ill-defined. What’s so strange about both Freytag […]
V. Aaron Nielson is always among the most cheerful and helpful of critics. In his review (“Pretend Privatization”), Aaron focuses on what he calls pretend privatization, which he defines in terms of “situations in which the government tries to avoid being labeled as the government, even though it still wants to exercise the powers of […]
The “exchange-traded fund” (ETF) is one of the key financial innovations of the modern era. Our article, A Regulatory Framework for Exchange-Traded Funds (forthcoming in Southern California Law Review, vol. 91, no. 5, 2018), is the first academic work to show the need for, or to offer a regulatory framework for ETFs. The economic significance […]
SEC v. Lucia is an extraordinary case in several respects. First, it is an Appointments Clause case. When I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel (from 1993-1997), we handled Appointments Clause issues on an at least weekly basis. In striking contrast, the Supreme Court has only rarely opined on the meaning of the Clause. […]
IWP News has published a thought-provoking series of articles dealing with “the deregulatory efforts of the Trump administration.” One such article reports on the views from third parties on the regulatory budget: “White House efforts to establish a first-time “regulatory budget” would be assisted by the development of a cross-sector, “national constituency” in support of regulatory […]
The Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments in Raymond J. Lucia v. SEC on Monday, April 23, 2018. The sole issue for which cert was granted is whether administrative law judges (ALJs) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are officers of the United States within the meaning of the Federal Constitution’s appointments clause. […]
Let me begin by apologizing for the delay and by thanking the JREG crew and, of course, Chris Walker, for hosting this symposium and putting together a remarkable roster of essayists. The breadth and depth of the essays are a testament to the strength and vitality of the administrative law community. What’s more, they reflect […]
On January 5, 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) reported that in fiscal year 2017, it conducted 30,200 searches of electronic devices at border entries. CBP Releases Updated Border Search of Electronic Device Directive and FY17 Statistics (January 5, 2018), accessible at https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-updated-border-search-electronic-device-directive-and. The number of searches reported included devices carried by people entering and […]
If the Supreme Court decides in Lucia v. SEC that the SEC’s administrative law judges are officers, what are the implications on other cases at the SEC (or similarly situated agencies)? The effect will likely differ depending on whether other cases have become final or are still pending before the agency or a court. Here, […]
In February, I submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case Lucia v. SEC, arguing that the original public meaning of the term “Officer(s) of the United States” referred to any government employee exercising non-negligible federal power. While I submitted the brief on behalf of a fifteen corpus linguistics scholars, in a […]
Many jurisdictions seek to protect undocumented aliens by adopting “sanctuary” policies. Those policies generally constrain the conduct of a state or local government’s own employees. They (1) prohibit public employees from gathering information on the immigration status of those with whom they interact, (2) limit public employees from sharing any such information collected with ICE, […]