The key compromise at the heart of the 2009 Tobacco Control Act was this: Tobacco products that were already on the market would be “grandfathered,” but any new tobacco products would have to undergo premarket review and demonstrate that allowing them to be sold would be “appropriate for the protection of public health”—a tough standard […]
As Andy noted in his post last week, the Pepperdine Law Review will be publishing soon a symposium on the implications of King v. Burwell on tax law and administration. In his contribution, Andy asks: Where Were the Tax Professors? In our contribution, my tax prof colleague Stephanie Hoffer and I focus on the reasoning of the majority […]
As regular readers know, Notice & Comment was a go-to source for commentary on King v. Burwell. I thus thought that readers might be interested in my recent symposium essay, King v. Burwell: Where Were the Tax Professors?. I’ve reproduced the abstract below and the full piece can be downloaded here: King v. Burwell drew unusually […]
D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed is designed to help you keep track of the nation’s “second most important court.” Think Relist Watch, but for D.C. Circuit opinions. In just five minutes a week, you too can follow this court. Alas, the D.C. Circuit did not issue any opinions this week. So, this week only, feel […]
A district court in Washington, DC ruled Wednesday that the House of Representatives has standing to bring a lawsuit alleging that the Obama administration is spending federal money to finance the ACA, absent a congressional appropriation. As I’ve explained , the stakes of the lawsuit are high—not as high as King v. Burwell, but nothing […]
Last week the Administrative Conference of the United States posted a draft of my report entitled Federal Agencies in the Legislative Process: Technical Assistance in Statutory Drafting. This report builds on the empirical survey work I conducted a couple years ago on federal agency rulemaking and agency statutory interpretation, which culminated in an article published in […]
I’ve previously written here about some of the craziness surrounding Yucca Mountain, the once-and-future federal nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nevada. That was the better part of a year ago, and it’s time for an update. First, a brief refresher. Since about the 1960s, nuclear power has been a substantial piece of the electricity […]
Here is the August 2015 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 William Funk. There are some really, really terrific articles here, a number of which are on my list to highlight in theAdministrative Law Bridge Series. I’ve included some […]
Conventional wisdom proclaims the D.C. Circuit to be “the second most important court.” (Sometimes it’s even called “the second most powerful court.”) The Washington Post says it; the New York Times says it; even media outlets halfway around the world say it. But is it true? There is a good argument that the California Supreme […]
A couple of weeks back I flagged that ACUS is hiring. Well, today I have learned that the Administrative Conference of the United States is also requesting proposals for a study examining the use of electronic case management in agency adjudication. Here’s the link. Proposals are due on October 2, 2015. If you study agency […]
Why does the Supreme Court forbid cameras in the courtroom? It isn’t because courtroom sketches are flattering. Instead, the Justices fear that cameras will change the dynamic of the Court. And why do law clerks have a duty of confidentiality? The reason is similar. Whatever you think of these policies, you can at least appreciate […]
I’ve been enjoying my co-blogger Aaron Nielson’s review of the DC Circuit’s cases. Perhaps some of this pleasure comes from my memories of clerking there, for the great Stephen F. Williams, the intellectual godfather of many an academic’s career—it’s a uniquely interesting place to clerk, with cases that can be at the core of some […]
On March 27, 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) posted a notice of public hearing and request for comments about “the current use of human drug and biological products labeled as homeopathic, as well as the Agency’s regulatory framework for such products.” The FDA took this action because the previously limited homeopathic drug market […]
Sarah Kliff has a nice explainer at Vox about how the House’s lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act could get some traction. As I’ve said before, the case should be dismissed for want of standing, and I suspect that it eventually will be—if not by the district court, then on appeal. But what if the […]
I begin this week’s post with a public service announcement: law students (and, increasingly, law graduates), if you want to clerk on the D.C. Circuit, you need to read more than just Reading Law, Federal Jurisdiction, and administrative law guides and treatises. One of the most common questions a judge will ask in an interview […]