Introduction to Administrative Law
Spring 2013
What does Administrative Law Deal With?
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The formation, staffing, and funding of agencies.
Rulemaking (legislation) by agencies
Adjudications (trials) by agencies
Judicial review of agency action
Access to private information by agencies
Public access to agency information
Agency liability
Law Practice Reasons to Study
Administrative Law
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Some is on the bar
 Procedural due process and standing
The majority of lawyers do admistrative practice
some or most of the time.
 Malpractice trap if you do not recognize adlaw
problems.
Fundamentally different approach than nonagency courses.
Administrative Law Practice
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Work for agencies.
Counsel clients how to operate within regulations.
Represent clients before agencies.
Litigate against agencies.
Represent clients in the development of agency
policy and regulations.
Areas of Administrative Law Practice
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Tax
Environmental law
Securities law
Land use law
Health law
Energy law
Etc.
Learning Objectives
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Administrative law literacy
Key cases
Recognize administrative law issues
How to deal with agencies
How agencies are and must be political
Cost-benefit analysis
Unintended consequences of regulatory decisions
A hard look at a few regulatory problems.
Course Structure
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The E&E book
 Basic intro to administrative law
 Just read it all the way through
Supplementary materials (www)
 Basic literacy in areas not in the text.
 Full text cases in specific regulatory areas to look
at regulatory policy.
 Class discussion of issues that come up in the
news.
Course Procedure
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PowerPoint slides
 Study questions for class
 They are study aids, not substitutes for reading.
Exam study questions
 The exam will come from these questions
 Simple, clear, straightforward
Class discussion
 Elucidating the text.
 Better understanding policy.
 I reserve the right to use participation points.
History of Administrative Law
The Administration of Government
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Moving beyond feudalism, all governments are
divided into functional units that behave as
agencies
Administrative law deals with agencies in the
executive branch of the federal government
 State administrative law is more complex
because states have multiple executives and
less separation of powers.
The Colonial Period
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Colonial governments had agencies that were
either controlled by the king or by local
governments
 Boards of health
Major cities were more powerful entities than
most states
 To this day, old cities have varying degrees of
special legal status
 Much of the regulatory state was urban
Articles of Confederation
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After independence, but before the Constitution,
the states were independent sovereigns
All agency action was state and local
 The Articles did not provide for a central
government with binding powers
 This did not work very well and almost cost us
the revolutionary war
The Constitutional Allocation of Powers
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The Constitution provided for a national
executive, legislature, and courts with binding
powers over the states
The states were left all powers not allocated to the
federal government
 Police powers (most traditional state and local
regulation)
 The federal delegation was flexible, not
enumerated
Administrative Law in the Constitution
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The Constitution did not contemplate a large
federal government
 The Constitution established the framework for
separation of powers and basic functions of the
government, but is largely silent on the law of
agencies
 This was not important at the time because day
to day government was run by states and cities
Original intent analysis does not work in adlaw
Administrative Law in the States until the
New Deal
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The states and cities had extensive regulatory laws and
agencies
 While some see this period as one of limited
regulation, that is only true at the federal level
 Most administrative law (most government) is still
carried out at the state level
Most federal regulatory programs are shared federalism
 Environmental law
 Medicaid
The Federal Administrative Law System
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While there was federal regulation before the 1930s,
the modern regulatory state began with the Great
Depression
 The role of the federal government was greatly
expanded to fight World War II
 The military did not disband after WW II because
we went into the Cold War
 The federal government also did not disband,
beginning the modern regulatory state
Most major Supreme Court cases on adlaw date from
the 1970s
Organization of Agencies
Branches of Government
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Legislative Branch
 Creates agencies and pays for government
Executive Branch
 Enforces laws
 Protects the national security
Judicial Branch
 Determines the constitutionality of laws
 Resolves conflicts between state and federal law
The Creation of Agencies
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Since the Constitution is mostly silent on agencies,
federal agency powers are rooted in statutes
Congress delegates power to the agency and provides
the money to run the agency.
Congress can abolish agencies, change their powers,
and fund or defund them, subject only to presidential
veto power.
 Congress cut off money to move Guantanamo
prisoners to US prisons
Congress ultimately holds the power
 Congress has political trouble using the power
Separation of Powers
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Enforcement agencies must be in the executive
branch
 Agencies that do not do enforcement may be in
any branch
Executive branch agencies are under the control
of the President through the appointments
process, as laid out in the Constitution
 Independent agencies are under more limited
control.
Agency Practice
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
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The Administrative Procedure Act provides the
general framework for the interaction of between the
agency, regulated parties, and the general public.
 http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/Courses/study_aids/adla
w/index.htm
The APA is secondary to the statutes that establish
an agency.
 The APA only controls when the enabling act is
silent.
Rulemaking
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Congress can give agencies the power to make rules that
have the same legal effect as statutes
The public is given a chance to see and comment on
these rules before they become final
Rulemaking is very important because most statutes
passed by Congress do not contain sufficient detail to be
enforced without additional agency regulation.
The terms rule and regulation are interchangeable.
Adjudications
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Congress can give agencies the power to make
factual determinations and issue orders
This determination of facts and enforcement in
individual cases involving specific named parties
is called an adjudication
These can look like trials, complete with
independent judges and rules of evidence
They can also be as informal as inspecting a
restaurant or impounding a bad dog
The Role of the Courts
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Is the enabling law constitutional?
Are the regulations consistent with the enabling law and
properly promulgated?
Did the agency act in an arbitrary and capricious manner
in an adjudication?
Did the agency violate an individuals constitutional rights
or commit a tort?
Biggest difference from private and criminal law:
 The courts generally defer to the agency.
Suing Agencies for Torts
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Learn about exhaustion of remedies
Learn about how the standards for judicial review of
agency decisionmaking differ from private and
criminal litigation
Learn the procedure and limits on the government for
damages caused by agencies
 Sovereign immunity
 Tort claims acts
 Statutory immunity such as the Flood Control Act
of 1928.