The Obama administration’s deferred action program for eligible undocumented immigrants has thrust an obscure issue into the spotlight: when must federal agencies allow the public to comment on their policy initiatives? In February, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the program largely on the grounds that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision […]

In a surprising ruling, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit ruled last week in Graham v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that strict liability claims and negligence claims in the long running Engle-progeny litigation are preempted by federal law. The decision, written by Judge Tjoflat, applied a broad reading of the implied preemption doctrine, concluding that […]

Recently, Senator Ted Cruz made headlines with his claim that the “IRS Code” contains more words than the Bible, with “not a one of them as good.” The Washington Post fact-checked that claim but in doing so, opened up another hornet’s nest. Academics across the country wrote in to take issue with the WaPo’s parroting […]

If the Supreme Court rules for the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell, the thirty-four states without their own exchanges will come under immense pressure to create them. But there’s a catch, one that so far has gone unmentioned in the debate over King. Could residents of the states with new state-based exchanges even qualify for […]

The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) is looking for a researcher/consultant for an exciting new project entitled The Ombudsman in Federal Agencies . If I weren’t already working on ACUS’s project on federal agencies in the legislative process , I’d definitely be interested in consulting on this project. These offices can play a critical […]

There was a time when the Fed Chair’s semi-annual testimony before the House or Senate was something of a love fest. Chairman Greenspan would be celebrated by members on the left and right, each side eager to latch onto the growing perception that Greenspan—and the Fed—was the best thing going in U.S. economic policy. Judging […]

With Republicans in control of both Houses of Congress, one should expect more legislative efforts to reign in the modern administrative state. And, indeed, about three-dozen such reform proposals have been introduced in Congress since the first of the year. It is a daunting task to try to keep track of all of these proposals, […]

In my prior posts, I have discussed two Treasury/IRS regulations that contradict the language of Section 36B. The first regulation rewrites Section 36(c)(1)(B) and extends the ACA tax credit, in a roundabout way, to unlawful aliens. However, as I previously noted, it’s doubtful that the employers of the unlawful aliens would face any adverse consequences […]

In a prior post, I wrote about Treasury/IRS regulations that contradict Section 36B and extend the ACA premium tax credit to some low-income unlawful aliens. In this post, I want to discuss another regulation that contradicts the statute. Although Section 36B provides tax credits only if your household income falls within a certain range (100 […]

In my prior post, I explained how Treasury/IRS regulations contradict Section 36B and essentially extend premium tax credits to the lawfully residing dependents of an unlawfully residing alien. I posited that a controversy could arise when the extension of that credit triggered an employee penalty. To avoid a penalty under Section 4980H(a), an employer must provide […]

The econ blogosphere is alight with the news that former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is now blogging. While I may engage the substance of his posts in this space, I want to comment on his striking choice to blog at all. In a Q&A at Brookings earlier in the month, a journalist asked Bernanke for […]