I was reading the ACA again yesterday—a pretty typical Sunday for me—when I came across another statutory clue that Congress could not have meant to strip tax credits from states with federally established exchanges. The ACA requires all individual and small-group insurers to cover the “essential health benefits,” but the statute was pretty vague about […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) seeks comment on a proposed rule regarding service animals on VA grounds. At present, VA facility heads or designees have the discretion to approve or bar the presence of service animals on VA property. In contrast, federal law, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), more broadly permits guide […]
The Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress, yet Congress grants expansive lawmaking authority to federal agencies. The conventional model for understanding this relationship between Congress and the administrative state—as positive political theorists have long explored—is to view it in principal-agent terms. In other words, Congress delegates authority to federal agencies, and those agencies are […]
Greetings from the frozen tundra of Northern Indiana! As a new Congress gets set to work, administrative law aficionados are focusing on the Regulatory Accountability Act (“RAA”), which would substantially amend the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill passed the House with a vote of 250-175 and the President is threatening to veto it on the […]
This is the fifth in a series of my posts discussing some of the amicus briefs filed in King v. Burwell: The amici curiae brief of Professor Josh Blackman and the Cato Institute reflects an unusual but effective contribution to King v. Burwell. The brief touches only lightly on the actual question presented, focusing instead […]
Over at Jotwell — the Journal of Things We Like (Lots) — Richard Murphy reviews one of Adrian Vermeule’s latest essays, “Rationally Arbitrary Decisions (in Administrative Law),” which is available on SSRN here. I should probably confess at the outset that Professor Vermeule is one of my favorite administrative law scholars, and I devour everything […]
This is the fourth in a series of my posts discussing some of the amicus briefs filed in King v. Burwell: Our next amicus brief comes two nonprofits groups, the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons and the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, along with some individual physicians (the AAPS brief). I will confess that […]
This is the third in a series of my posts discussing some of the amicus briefs filed in King v. Burwell: A group of academics have filed a provocative brief in King v. Burwell, viewing the dispute through the lens of the Constitution’s appropriations clause. The academics argue that the health care law is an […]
This is the second in a series of my posts discussing some of the various amicus briefs filed in King v. Burwell: In their brief supporting the taxpayers, the Washington Legal Foundation and Professor Steven J. Willis argue that Section 36B’s plain text forecloses the IRS’s interpretation. A good chunk of the brief repeats arguments […]
Judging from the Supreme Court’s docket, many attorneys spent their Christmas vacations putting together various amicus briefs supporting the taxpayers in King v. Burwell. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to survey those briefs and offer my reactions to some of them. I expect to offer specific thoughts on the briefs themselves and provide […]
As we enter the New Year, SSRN has some terrific new administrative law scholarship to consume. Here is the December 2014 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. For more on why SSRN and this eJournal are […]
William Jay, a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, was recently a featured speaker in the Section’s Supreme Court Series Teleconference entitled Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association: The Supreme Court Considers the Limits on Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking Requirements. Notice and Comment had the opportunity to sit down with the Law360 2014 Rising Star and hear about his […]
Last month Professor Tribe filed comments with the EPA and wrote in the Wall Street Journal to argue that the EPA’s new Clean Power Plan rules are unconstitutional. I would like to expand upon and generalize his concerns. The basic issue – that the agency is asserting newfound and broad regulatory power based on general […]
The Yale Journal on Regulation started this blog back in September. With the launch of the blog, I started the Administrative Law Bridge Series. Each week I’ve highlighted terrific scholarship in administrative law and regulation to help bridge the gap between theory and practice in the regulatory state. The introduction to the AdLaw Bridge Series […]
This is the second part of a discussion about the relationship between FERC and EPA. In Part 1, I explained that Congress has generally written its environmental statutes without regard for its energy statutes, and vice versa. Recent environmental regulatory activity—in particular, two massive initiatives announced by EPA in 2014—has heightened concerns that EPA and […]