On May 23, 2017, the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the new Director-General of WHO. Dr Tedros, a former Ethiopian Health Minister, is the first African leader of the international organization. WHO is distinct among international organizations for its ability to initiate both treaties […]
The eccentricities, let’s say, of the current President obscure something very interesting and important that is occurring now in the regulatory system. So I will try, in my seven or so minutes, to describe what’s changed and why it represents the beginning of a serious reimagining—yes, a serious one—of the regulatory process. As a baseline […]
In 2011, Congress gave the Patent Office new rulemaking power, and created new adjudicative proceedings at the Patent Office before panels of “administrative patent judges.” These proceedings have generated hundreds of new appeals to the Federal Circuit, some of which are exceptionally well-lawyered and present interesting administrative law issues. These cases have recently started to […]
If you’re in D.C. tomorrow and wanting to chat more about Chevron deference, I’ll be presenting the findings from my coauthored study Chevron in the Circuit Courts (with Kent Barnett, Michigan Law Review forthcoming) at the D.C. Bar. Here are the details from the D.C. Bar website: Chevron Deference in the Circuit Courts Date & […]
Last Thursday, fifteen states and the District of Columbia moved to intervene in House v. Price, the case about the ACA’s cost-sharing reductions. At the same time, they asked the court to hear the case promptly. This is a bigger deal than it may seem, and could offer some comfort to insurers that are in […]
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should recuse himself from the probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and the President’s apparent attempt to obstruct the FBI’s inquiry. Rosenstein himself played a key role in the events at the center of the controversy, and his continued involvement casts a shadow over the ongoing investigation. So […]
Apologies: I’m traveling this week so this post will be quick. In my mind, I can hear Judge Janice Rogers Brown say “This is stealing.” To be clear, I’ve not spoken with her about Keepseagle v. Perdue, one of the week’s big cases. So I suppose I don’t really know what she said. Even so, […]
On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) reported out favorably the Portman-Heitkamp Regulatory Accountability Act. I’ve blogged about this bipartisan regulatory reform legislation here and here, and I have an more in-depth take on the legislation in an essay forthcoming in Administrative Law Review. Earlier this week, moreover, The Regulatory Review (f/k/a RegBlog) […]
Over at The Regulatory Review today, Scott Slesinger, Legislative Director at NRDC, and Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, have an essay detailing their lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs. Over at the Library of Law and Liberty blog back in February, Brian Mannix posted […]
This is a special midweek edition of D.C. Circuit Review — Reviewed. I’ll post again on Friday. Last Friday I offered a “small thought” about the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit — namely, that for the last few decades, the chief judge has left active status even when there was a very good chance […]
As my co-blogger Aaron Nielson covered in his D.C. Circuit Review — Reviewed “postscript” two weeks ago, the D.C. Circuit recently denied rehearing in United States Telecom Ass’n v. FCC, which was the challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality regulations. Among more than one hundred pages of separate opinions concerning the denial, Judge Kavanaugh has a […]
This past week the Federal Circuit issued a significant decision* interpreting the Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. In Helman v. Department of Veterans Affairs, the court held unconstitutional part of Congress’s new statutory scheme for expedited removal of senior executives in the Veterans Affairs Department (DVA). In the court’s view, […]
President Trump’s recent objections to spending money appropriated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 are likely illegal. The 708-page act funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year and includes multiple specifications on how President Trump must spend money. In a signing statement, President Trump took issue with many of the provisions of the […]
I did not think the President’s decision to fire James Comey as FBI Director would have any connection with the D.C. Circuit (well, beyond the fact that Judge Silberman was quoted in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s letter). Yet just a few days later, I see that Chief Judge Garland is being pitched as a […]
Perhaps the most controversial provisions of the Portman-Heitkamp Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017 concern the availability of a public hearing for rules that have an economic impact of $100 million or more. The legislation would amend the Administrative Procedure Act to allow interested parties to petition for a public hearing and require the agency to include […]