My prior post explained how ordinary business transactions between foreign governments and the Trump Organization would not automatically create violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause regarding President-elect Trump. That post concluded that the term “emolument” refers only to payments made in connection with the performance of services for a foreign government (whether as an officer or employee), […]
In A Report to the President-Elect of the United States 2016, the ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice calls attention to the opportunity to enhance to the efficiency of, and satisfaction with, the outcomes of agency adjudications by expanding the government’s commitment to using ADR techniques. Any discussion of ADR in the context […]
One of the cases I discussed during my presentation on developments in agency adjudication at the annual ABA Administrative Law Conference last week was the D.C. Circuit’s decision in American Immigration Lawyers Association v. Executive Office for Immigration Review. In this case, the D.C. Circuit addressed a number of important issues related to a Freedom of Information […]
Today Senator Mitch McConnell, in an apparent reversal, launched what he described as a bipartisan inquiry into whether the Russian government sought to interfere with the US election. Given that President-elect Trump hasn’t been too fond of this theory of the election, and that Sen. McConnell forcefully defended the CIA and intelligence community while the […]
In addition to sending robust recommendations to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on administrative law issues for the new administration to consider, the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (“Section”) also recently sent several recommendations for potential research projects to the Administrative Conference of the United States (“ACUS”). These recommendations are very timely […]
Each year, diverse federal agencies conduct millions of hearings, making determinations that can have a profound impact on the parties participating in them. For instance, agency hearings can decide eligibility for disability or veterans’ benefits or can determine immigration status, with decisions impacting a party’s financial security or right to remain in the United States. […]
It’s unclear how many Americans fully understand the meaning of the U.S. (and many other countries’) “one China policy” and the history behind it, but Donald Trump’s recent phone call with Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese president who won this year’s elections in part on an interpretation of “one China” that included greater autonomy for Taiwan, […]
In this era of gridlock and difficult politics, a bipartisan group of Senators has done something worth celebrating. On Monday, with the introduction of the Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act, S. 3499, the Senate has taken the first step not only toward busting the judicial clerkship monopoly on mentoring fresh young law graduates but also […]
This week has been busy in the D.C. Circuit. There are nine cases. But only three have anything to do with administrative law. That fact reminded me of a quirky tidbit that I discovered about the D.C. Circuit: The number of administrative appeals decided by the D.C. Circuit appears to have been declining over the […]
Republicans may have the votes pass a reconciliation bill that will hollow out the ACA in a few years. They pinkie swear that, at that point, they’ll pass some kind of replacement. But for that to work, they’ll need Democratic support. Chuck Schumer is already saying they won’t get it: “We’re not going to do […]
My prior post explained how the Foreign Emoluments Clause probably would not apply to ordinary business transactions between foreign governments and Donald Trump’s businesses. That post assumed, as a threshold matter, that the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which applies to holders of an “Office of Profit or Trust,” reaches the President. However, as noted in the […]
This recent tweet from Professor Larry Tribe caught my eye: Call it what you like, but the # of voters turned away for not having required forms of ID exceeded margin of T’s victory in MI, Pa & Wis https://t.co/GwEpraOPgp — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) December 6, 2016 As soon as I read it, I said […]
Excellent resource for adlaw geeks interested in transition. Per the Washington Post here: The Post and Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, are tracking these 662 executive branch appointments through the nomination process. These positions include Cabinet secretaries, deputy and assistant secretaries, chief financial officers, general counsel, heads of agencies, ambassadors and other […]
Shortly after his nomination as Treasury Secretary was announced, Steven Mnuchin went on television to offer some tax-reform principles that would guide the new administration: Any reductions we have in upper income taxes will be offset by less deductions so that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class. There will be […]
A fraught area in recent times has been the unwillingness of the political executive to accept scientific findings generated in the civil service or in the academy in the face of controversy over regulatory matters on which they bear. Issues about “bending science” became particularly acute during the second Bush presidency, when political refusals to […]