As 2016 staggers to a close, a regulatory kerfuffle in California underscores two things about the sharing economy. First, the sharing economy – companies that provide digitally intermediated, peer-to-peer rental of goods and purchase of services – is not just a tech-bubble fad, but an increasingly integral and innovative part of the mainstream economy. Second, […]
This Christmas Eve, I’ve decided to explore the D.C. Circuit’s history with Christmas. It turns out to be a pretty interesting history. (It also turns out that Christmas is not always a time of happiness.) Consider, for instance, the case of Anderson v. White, decided by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia […]
Effective December 23, the regulation giving rise to NSEERS or special registration is officially terminated. The magnitude of this win for Muslim, Arab and South Asian organizations; rights groups; and the rule of law cannot be underestimated as it comes on the heels of nearly 15 years of uphill and tireless work to defend those […]
Over at Prawfsblawg, Orly Lobel features Mila Sohoni’s new article Crackdowns, which is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review. Here is Professor Lobel’s take on the piece: Crackdowns are administrative actions designed to increase enforcement in a particular area – such as taking a few weeks in which OSHA inspectors focus on janitorial services with surprise inspections. […]
At its 66th Plenary Session, held December 13th and 14th, 2016, the Administrative Conference adopted four new recommendations. From the Federal Register notice, which is on public inspection today, these four recommendations include: Recommendation 2016-3, Special Procedural Rules for Social Security Litigation in District Court. This recommendation encourages the Judicial Conference of the United States to develop […]
As part of this blog’s symposium on the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice’s recent Report to the President-Elect, Bernie Bell has written a thoughtful commentary on the ABA’s 2016 proposals to revise the Administrative Procedure Act. I have something of a stake in those proposals, because I successfully presented them to the […]
It is inevitable that the priorities of the Department of Education will change under its new chief, Betsy DeVos. The purpose of this post is to take one of the Obama-era legacies – Title IX enforcement – and suggest ways it might be improved – especially as understood from an individual health lens. While the […]
Per a rule released last week, CMS will now require qualified health plans to count the cost sharing paid by the enrollee for an essential health benefit provided by an out-of-network ancillary provider at an in-network setting towards the enrollee’s in-network annual limitation on cost sharing for QHPs in certain circumstances. Let’s say you go […]
When it comes to repealing the ACA, one of the trickiest questions concerns timing. Congressional Republicans don’t want to pitch 20 million people off of their insurance right away. Nor do they want the midterm elections to be fought amidst the collapse of the individual market. At the same time, they’re committed to repeal. To […]
This has been a fairly quiet week in the D.C. Circuit. We have four cases — none of which is a blockbuster. Yet one case in my particular caught my attention: Angelene Hardaway v. District of Columbia Housing. Here’s why: The prevailing attorneys (Dina B. Mishra and Steven H. Goldblatt) were “appointed by the court,” […]
Over the last several weeks, we have hosted an online symposium on the 2016 Report to the President-Elect on Improving the Administrative Process, which was released by the ABA Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in advance of the presidential election. The symposium has generated a robust, diverse discussion of many of the recommendations […]
There’s been a lot of talk in Washington lately about the people President-elect Trump has chosen to fill various executive branch positions, but there’s one position we shouldn’t be hearing talk about him filling: Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). When Congress created the CFPB, it deliberately chose to insulate the CFPB Director […]
The gap between textbook administrative law and actual practice exists in many areas, but perhaps nowhere more so than with respect to the so-called independent agencies. In theory, such agencies operate “independent” of the control and direction of the President. In practice, the White House has myriad mechanisms to oversee and even to control these […]
Here is the November 2016 edition of the most-downloaded recent papers (those announced in the last 60 days) from SSRN’s U.S. Administrative Law eJournal, which is edited by Bill Funk. This is a terrific set of papers, and I wish I had more time this week to say a few words about each one. Bureaucracy […]
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), […]