Chapter 3
Part IV
Administrative Judges and Decisional
Independence
ALJ - Administrative Law Judge
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Civil Service protections
Cannot be assigned other duties - no cleaning the
toilet if the Secretary does not like your rulings
Can have performance goals
Cannot have decisional quotas
AJs - Administrative Judges
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Just regular employees with no special
protections
Subject to more supervision
Can do many other jobs
Critical in small agencies who do not have enough
adjudications to justify a full time ALJ corp
ALJs would like to have AJs eliminated
Grant v. Shalala
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What were the causes of the plaintiff’s
disability?
What did the ALJ rule?
What was the "secondary gain" the ALJ was
criticized for mentioning?
The Bias Claim
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What did plaintiff claim was the ALJ's bias?
 Why might an ALJ develop this attitude?
 Is this an argument for an ALJ corps.?
What did the agency do to investigate her
complaint?
Why did the appeals court reject the right to do
discovery?
The Central Panel Issue
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How is a central panel like the Federal judiciary?
What are the pros and cons of a central pool of
administrative law judges?
How might a central pool have its own bias?
What about limiting the right of the agency to
appeal the independent ALJ's decision?
Wooley v. State Farm
Insurance Commission
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How is the insurance commissioner selected?
Why is he selected this way?
Why is this important in a separation of powers
argument?
Has there been trouble in the office?
Division of Administrative Law
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When was this created?
 Which part of the executive branch controls the
agency?
 What were the criteria for being an ALJ when
the agency was formed?
 Does this matter?
Were the decisions binding on the agencies?
How was the law changed in 1999?
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How did the change affect the agency's ability to
set policy?
How does this shift the balance of power between
the different parts of the executive branch?
What is the political control over ALJs?
Affect on the Courts
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Does the law say that the courts cannot review
ALJ decisions?
Which ALJ decisions escape the reach of the
courts?
Why?
What is the separation of powers issue?
The District Court Opinion
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Putting aside the law, what really seemed to
annoy the judge about the ALJs?
What do you think about this?
What did the District Court rule about the
separation of powers issues?
Bias in Administrative Decisionmaking
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Why is the chance for bias greater than with
Article III judges?
Why do we worry less about bias in agency
adjudications?
 This is critical to understanding the approach
 How does the rule of necessity and Matthews v.
Eldridge figure in the analysis?
How would you analyze the effect of the current
LA system on bias and its remedies?