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), […]
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 […]